The Path We Must Travel
by shinjowy
Summary: Akatsuki stirs and Orochimaru makes his move! Naruto joins Akatsuki after a disconcerting past, Sasuke is now a Sound nin, and the Ninja War intensifies! CHAP. 15 is UP!
1. Sound

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!!! Waaaahhhh!!! (i really wish i did)

Note: This is my first fan fic, so any helpful criticism and comments will be welcome. I hope you guys can help me with pairings, jutsus, and other ideas so i can make a really good story. The story begins four years after Sasuke leaves to go to Orochimaru, Sakura trains under Tsunade, and Naruto trains with Jiraiya. I'll be switching between characters (although I don't know which characters as of yet) from time to time, so you guys get a good feel of what happens in every side of the story.

Normal - conversations, narration

_Italics - thoughts_

**_Bold and Italic - jutsus_**

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Sasuke walks through the poverty-ridden Village of Sound, deep in the forests north of Konoha. Many people see him and give him way, mainly because they know him as "Sasuke-sama." They move aside wherever he walks, not because they respect him as the future leader of Sound, but because they fear him. Here, in this village of despondency, the Sound ninsare considered to be higher than civilians of the village itself.

Sasuke avoids eye contact, not even wanting to see this village which he considers to be "the land of lost hope". He was not originally from this village. He was from a village called Konoha, but Sasuke knew that it was worthless to remember the village where he was once from.

"Why… why am I still here? Why have I not yet left this village?" Sasuke mumbles to himself, as he finally looks up at the Village of Sound. This village always had that aura of decay, from the cracked buildings to the wooden homes of the villagers filled with holes. There was no air of joy, no entertainment of any kind, not even a tea house where he could enjoy spending afternoons drinking. This place, known in the Village of Sound as "The Lower Octave", surrounded the "The Higher Octave" which housed Orochimaru's grandiose palace and the residences of the Sound nins.

Sasuke was suddenly aware of all the eyes focused on him. All around him, civilians were looking at him, with a certain emotion in their eyes. Was it fear? Hatred? Anger? He could not determine which. He knew that these people only went to the Village of Sound because they thought that Orochimaru could give them a better life. But once they arrived, they could never leave… Sound's Hunter-nins made sure of that. These people were only test subjects for the numerous kinjutsus that Orochimaru created. These people were only guinea pigs; they were only trash in the eyes Orochimaru, and yet he, Sasuke, of the once noble family of Uchiha, would not do anything about it.

Sasuke ignores the stares of the people and trudges on, completely in his thoughts.

_"Four years have passed since I left Konoha… anda year since I last confronted Itachi. And yet… and yet…!"_ Sasuke clenches his fist in the memory of this bitter event.

_"I still was not strong enough to kill him, even with the power of the Curse Seal!!!"_

And he remembered that day well. He had gone on an S-rank mission for Sound that day. The mission was to assassinate the 5th Hokage, Tsunade, and if he could not do so, he was to kill as much jounins and ANBU as possible without attracting attention. And it would be done in the most opportune moment of all: during the Chuunin Exams, which were held in Konoha at that time. Due to the number of chuunin, jounin, and ANBUcurrentlylooking after theexam, Tsunade would lack the protection that she needed.

This would create an opening for Orochimaru to commence his attack on Konoha, and would result to Konoha's utter destruction.

Sasuke was given four jounins to lead on that mission; three of the new Sound 4, and a medical nin. However,back then,he thought that he could do it alone. He had trained so much under Orochimaru, learned so many ninjutsus and kinjutsus, and improved his control over the curse seal to a level that was yet to be achieved by the former Sound 5 and rivalled Orochimaru's Seven Heavenly Notes.

And yet, after all his training, he still could not attain the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan.

Thatbecame his downfall.

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Author's Note: I know it's short, but I'm working on the next chapter already and it'll probably be up shortly.


	2. Sasuke: Dark Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

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Sasuke continued to wander aimlessly throughout The Lower Octave, deep in his thoughts and memories.

_Hate me..._

_Detest me..._

Itachi's voice kept repeating in his mind, and those words became likea mantra to him...

_"That memory... that damned memory!!!"_

_Why are you still weak, my foolish little brother? Do you not have enough hate, enough anger? _

_"Itachi... someday... I will see you dead... but one thing is for sure... I will not follow the same path you took to gain your power... I will gain power in my own way, in my own terms... I will not sacrifice..." _

Itachi's crimson eyes seemed to bore a hole through Sasuke's mind..._ To be able to obtain the same eyes as mine, you must kill...your closest...friend..._

_"I will not sacrifice... My closest friend..."_

"Naruto...", Sasuke mumbles under his breath.

"Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke turns around to find a beautiful nin standing right behind him.

"Rui, how long have you been following me? Did Orochimaru send you to spy on my actions this time?"

Rui blushed faintly. Sasuke already knew that Rui liked him, but he never returned her feelings. He never even paid much attention to her. But for some odd reason, every girl that he treated that way seemed to like him even more. Rui was no exception.

"Ah... no," Rui continued in an embarrassed voice. "I was sent to escort you back to The Higher Octave. Otokage-sama wants to see you."

"What does that snake bastard want with me this time?"

"Um, I don't know. And Sasuke-sama, I don't think you should be callingOtokage-sama a snake bastard..."

But Sasuke didn't wait for Rui's reply. He had already jumped onto one of the rooftops and was already moving towards the area of The Higher Octave.

_"That snake bastard hasn't trained me for a month and now he's calling me? Don't tell me he's going to try to possess me again like he did a year ago."_

"Sasuke-sama, are you still thinking about that failed mission we had a year ago?"

Sasuke blinked in surprise. _"When did she move right beside me? She's better than I thought... or maybe I'm just tired and rusty."_

"It's about Itachi, isn't it?" Rui asked sympathetically.

That name sparked a bitter memory in Sasuke, especially when it came out of the mouth of a person who had gone with him in that failed mission. And he remembered that mission all too well...

Flashback (1 year ago)

It was a full moon, and Sasuke could feel the leaves brush against his cheeks as he and his followers jumped from tree to tree. This forest was already familiar to Sasuke, due to the fact that he had grown up training in these woods, just in the outskirts of Konoha.

"Sasuke-sama… Sasuke-sama…umm…"

"What is it, Rui? We're almost at Konoha, so stay focused on the mission," Sasuke says in his usual cold voice. He couldn't help it. Spending three years just living for revenge had taken its toll on his emotions.

"Ah… Sasuke-sama, don't you think it would be better if Masashi and I scouted the area first, just in case they have a few traps and ANBU around? Um… you never know…" says Rui.

Sasuke suddenly stops, and jumps down the tree he had just landed on. His four followers follow suit. He could see some of the lights of Konoha, although they were still a little far off.

Sasuke faces Rui, who looks exceptionally lovely under the moonlight with her shoulder length hair. Most men would have drooled over a girl this lovely, but he didn't care. He remembered that Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino were also pretty three years ago, but he found most girls, no matter how lovely, annoying anyway.

"Rui, stop trying to impress me. You'll just probably screw everything up again," Sasuke says with an even colder voice than before.

Rui blushes in embarrassment, and starts looking at her foot. She knew that she Sasuke was right, that she had a tendency to screw up, and she knew that the only reason why she was even in this mission was because she was the best medical nin, apart from Kabuto, in Sound.

"Stop treating my sister like trash, Uchiha, or else…" Masashi suddenly says with a dangerously threatening voice.

"Or else what?" Sasuke smiles arrogantly, focusing his attention to Rui's older brother."You know, Masashi, you're all talk, no action."

"What did you just say, you bastard? You want to lose your head right here?"

"Um, please stop it, Sasuke-sama, Nii-chan..."

"This is unnecessary, Sasuke-sama, Masashi," one of Sasuke's followers states calmly. "We are here to do a mission, not to squabble among ourselves. Although I would love to see the two of you fight till the death… it would be… delicious… he he he… all the blood flowing, all those delicious body parts flying… he he he…"

Sasuke and Masashi were now looking at the speaker, who was just casually holding his kunai, licking it there was some sweet substance on it.. Of all the current Sound 4, Kuroro was the strangest and the creepiest of all. Even Sasuke would not want to be left alone in a room with this guy. He was just… too weird.

"Sasuke-sama, what is the plan from this point on? We've stopped a long way off from Konoha, and I suspect that you didn't just stop here just because you wanted to reprimand Rui. He he he…" states Kuroro, almost casually, without even looking at Sasuke.

There was a moment's silence right after Kuroro spoke. Everyone was surprised, even Sasuke, due to the fact that he was known not to have said more than two sentences in one day. It was so silent that even an owl's faint hooting could be heard.

"Well, Sasuke-sama?" asks Kuroro as he faces Sasuke.

Sasuke quickly recomposes himself. "Rui, I want you to summon your bat. I want to see how many traps there are around Konoha."

"Alright, Sasuke-sama." Rui bites her thumb and spreads the blood on her palm. "**_Kuchiyose no jutsu_**!"

A bat as large as a kunai appears from the smoke. "Ira, use your sonic waves to uncover the traps up ahead." The bat flies off, and after a few minutes, comes back to Rui.

"Hmmm… Ira says there aren't that many traps up ahead, the problem is that these traps have double or even triple traps inserted with them.Half of them are for detection purposes, which are probablyused to alert theANBU,while the other half are there to kill or injure. And Ira says that there are also traps are all over the whole area surrounding Konoha, so going around the traps is impossible."

"Triple traps that surround Konoha, and detection traps for ANBU? How interesting," says the unknown member of the team.

Kuroro's eyes suddenly gleamed with excitement. "He he he… are you scared, Uke? He he he… it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't any challenge, ne, Sasuke-sama? He he he…"

"Hmph… we carry on. I just wanted to know the situation of the terrain. Be careful not to step on any of those traps… especially you, Rui."

Sasuke starts running in the direction of the lights, seemingly determined to finish the mission, but in reality is clouded in doubt and confusion on whether he should do this or not. The Sound nins follow a second later, but stay behind him at all times.

"_With this curse seal, it IS possible to kill Tsunade, but is this really what I want? Why am I feeling anxious and worried? There are four of us with the curse seal, and that should be more than enough… ugh, why do I feel this way! Is this guilt? I was supposed to have thrown away my loyalties with Konoha when I left my foreheadprotectorbehind…"_

Sasuke's deep thinking is suddenly disturbed by a sudden rustling of leaves to right, which he glances at slightly. Was a trap set off? He couldn't say. But he looked on, towards the lights, towards his destiny.

"_The past is the past. This is my path now. There can be no regrets."_ Sasuke's eyes suddenly burn with determination.

"_After Tsunade, it will be your time to die, Itachi."_

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Author's Note: Ok, so this chapter is slightly longer than the first. I need to know if you guys want the next chapters to be:  
Short: so it can be updated often or  
Long: but it may take a while to update  
Oh, and sorry if there aren't any pairings yet, and if I keep it in Sasuke's story(for now at least). Other pairings and character stories will eventually come out. It's a surprise.


	3. Sasuke: Goodbye, traitor

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: This is merely a continuation of the flashback episode from chapter 2.

Normal - conversation/narration

_Italics - thoughts_

**_Italic Bold - Jutsus_**

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Flashback continues

Sasuke had stopped and was hiding behind a tree, looking closely at the walls of Konoha. So far, he had not seen any watcher nins atop the towers, but he couldn't be too sure.

He starts moving from tree to tree as quickly and silently as possible.

"_Being spotted right at the gates of Konoha would be too risky. I don't want to expend any chakra, not until I've found Tsunade or at least Kakashi."_

Sasuke felt awkward thinking of his former mentor as his opponent. Kakashi had taught him so much, even the only original jutsu Kakashi had created: the Chidori. But he knew that this battle would eventually be inevitable, and so he was ready for it. He was actually somewhat looking forward to fighting another Sharingan user, because he knew that if he could beat Kakashi, he would have a chance against Itachi.

Sasuke finally finds himself right at the foot of the walls of Konoha. And yet, he still had not seen any watcher nins on the wall, and none of the ANBU seemed to be attacking him, despite the fact that he was currently wearing a forehead protector from Sound.

Sasuke felt uneasy as he started to scale Konoha's walls. There were no watcher nins atop the towers, and the ANBU who were usually making their rounds around Konoha were nowhere to be seen.

_"What the hell? Did something happen during the Chuunin Exam? Why the hell is security so lax?"_ Sasuke was puzzled at this new development.

Uke suddenly appears behind him. "Sasuke-sama, this seems… wrong. There are no guards, no watchers, and no ANBU in the area. Rui and Masashi have already confirmed this. Do they always keep Konoha this under-defended whenever the Chuunin Exam is held here?"

Sasuke noticed a slight tinge of worry in Uke's voice. And he knew that Uke rarely worries about anything. Being the strongest of the Sound 4, he knew that Uke was probably just as strong or even stronger than Kakashi.

"Where are the others, Uke?"

"Rui and Masashi are currently on the walls, killing any of the remaining watchers, that is, if there are any. Kuroro is currently inside the village, securing our routes towards the 5th Hokage's residence. Everything is currently going according to plan…" replies Uke, partly with worry and partly with determination.

"_Good, at least we're going according to plan. This recent development has made it easier to finish the mission. Heh, I don't know what happened at that Chuunin Exam, but it's definitely turning out to be beneficial for us." _But that feeling of worry would not seem to go away.

Atop the wall, he saw that Rui was looking over and calling out to him.

"Sasuke-sama, please hurry." Worry was clearly etched on her face.

Sasuke takes larger steps towards the top, and finally reaches it. And at the top, Sasuke is greeted by a horrible sight.

Kuroro's lifeless body was lying on the ground, with numerous kunai sticking out of him. He had clearly been killed by an ambush of numerous ninjas… however…

Rui looked puzzled as she was looking at Kuroro's body. "Before I brought him here, I found something strange… from what I could infer, Kuroro didn't fight back. His muscles were still relaxed when he was killed, meaning he wasn't even aware of the attack even until the last second…"

"So you're saying he didn't even defend himself during the ambush? Now what kind of stupid…" But an idea had struck Sasuke.

"_Wait a minute… I heard from years ago that there was a certain shinobi in the Leaf who could bind his opponents using his own shadow... This might not be as easy a mission as I thought. They already know we're here. Damn…"_

Sasuke takes his eyes off Kuroro and starts surveying the area. Rui was still bending down, looking at the body, while Uke was busy scanning the area of enemy nin who could be hiding. Masashi seemed to be missing, but he knew that despite of Masashi's rough tongue, he could easily take care of himself.

The top of the wall was 3 metres in width, enough for a handful of nin to do battle, but once they were caught in between a pincer attack, they would have to go on the defensive, and that could cost them chakra and waste their time.

The wall was also overlooking the city, and Sasuke could clearly see a great part of village. However, from this position, he knew that all those enemy nin could see them, and that they were sitting ducks for enemy kunai and shuriken.

"Rui, we need to move. Forget about Kuroro for now. We'll take his body later. We need to complete the mission."

Rui could only nod in agreement, but before they can move, the ground underneath them suddenly turns into a river of mud which sinks them and pushes them towards one of the towers.

"Damn it, we've been caught in a jutsu!!!" Uke cries out, as they were slammed right into the wall of tower.

"Watch out, Sasuke-sama!!" screams Rui, as multiple blasts of fire are suddenly coming from above them.

"Tch, they really aren't giving us a chance to escape. Oh well. This will have to do." Uke starts doing hand seals amidst the powerful current of the river of mud. "**_Fuuton Kaze no Tate!!_**"

A sphere of wind suddenly surrounds the three, deflecting the blasts of fire and creating a circular area which blocks the river of mud.

"Damn it, I can barely keep the shield up. This mud river's current is just too damn strong."

But Sasuke could hear a familiar sound, coming closer at high speed.

"_No… it can't be. Is it… Chidori!?!"_

Sasuke begins looking around, trying to determine the source of the Chidori, but is only met with the darkness of the night.

"Sasuke-sama, are you alright?" Uke asks. Sweat was beading on his face as he attempted to keep the shield of wind from faltering.

Suddenly, before any of them could react, Kakashi appears from above, piercing through the shield of wind, and impaling the wide-eyed Uke right through his left shoulder. The mud river suddenly disappears, and all three are left lying right next to the tower's wall, dazed.

"What?!? Are you…ugh…Copy-ninja… Kakashi?" Blood spatters everywhere as Uke tried to move his left shoulder. Rui was paralyzed because of the scene before her, and would not move an inch.

"It's impossible for you to create seals with that much damage on your left shoulder." Kakashi's voice seemed colder to Sasuke than he remembered, although he didn't seem to look any different than what he remembered from three years ago.

"Sasuke, you won't be treated any different from these guys, now that we see you've completely defected to Sound. Prepare to die."

"Hmph, Kakashi, what makes you think you can beat me," Sasuke replies arrogantly.

"_Don't underestimate me, Kakashi. I'll tear you apart once I unleash my curse seal."_ Sasuke got ready to unlock the curse seal, only to realize that… for some reason, he couldn't.

"Wha-What, what's happening?"

Sasuke could finally feel it. The feeling of desperation and, as he would hate to admit it, fear.

"Wha??? I can't move… either… damn it!!! What's happening?"

Sasuke could only watch in horror as several Leaf nins suddenly appears around them. Each of them had kunai in hand, waiting for Sasuke or Rui to make their move. Cold sweat suddenly forms on Sasuke's forehead as he watches them launch their kunais straight at him.

"_So this is how it is to die… damn. I can't die yet, not until… not until…"_

Pain came from every single inch of his whole body. Not even Rui's scream could block out the extreme pain that he experienced, as he felt each kunai lodge itself into his body.

And after the pain, darkness seemed to close on him quickly. And the last thing he hears is Kakashi's voice…

"Goodbye, traitor."

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Glossary:  
**_Fuuton Kaze no Tate_** - Wind Release; Shield of Wind  
a sphere of wind that protects the user/user's group from harm. however, it draws a lot of chakra especially if the shield is being constantly attacked.  
**_Chidori_** - Thousand Birds  
Kakashi's only original jutsu; a great amoung of charka is gathered at the palm of one's hand and is used to pierce through the opponent's body.

Author's Note: Well, I guess this was just as long as my previous chapter. Oh, and it won't stay in Sasuke's story for long. The next chapter will be the last flashback scene. Read and review please! (Is anyone even reading this? Oh well...)


	4. Naruto?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Wow, I was actually able to make this chapter longer than my previous ones (hooray to myself!) I was actually supposed to post the story on jan.1 but was unable to do so because of some family and holiday matters. And so, I decided to lengthen this chapter. Besides, since school has started again, I might not be able to update as soon as possible.

Normal - conversations/narrations

_Italics - thoughts_

**_Italics Bold - Jutsus_**

**_Blue-Eclipse - yes, there will be pairings, don't worry_**

**_Sirius183 - thanks for finding this story interesting, I'm trying my best (this is my first fic, after all). Sasuke's point of view is about to end, don't worry. I'll try to make the next few chapters as long as this one._**

**_jpthug12 - I won't make it yaoi, don't worry_**

**_LichtSieger - I intentionally made Sasuke think he could beat Tsunade with the Curse Seal, mainly because I wanted to depict his past self as an arrogant, selfish guy. The main timeline did depict him as having regrets at not being as strong as he thought he was._**

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Flashback continues

Sasuke floated in the darkness. Everything that happened that night almost felt like a dream… but it also seemed so real…

He suddenly hears a voice above him. "So, how was your trip, Uchiha Sasuke?"

The voice seemed… unfamiliar. "What the?!? Who the hell just said that? I'm supposed to be dead, right?"

Sasuke lifts himself up on his two hands and opens his eyes, while groaning from the immense headache that he felt.

"Oww, what happened? I was inside Konoha, and now I'm… here."

Sasuke looks forward, toward the bushes right in front of him, trying to make out his jumbled memories.

"Wait a minute… isn't that bush… the same one I looked at? Is this forest at the outskirts of Konoha? But how…"

"Don't mind him, Koujiro. He won't be any threat to our mission. I still don't understand why you're so interested in him."

"That voice!! It's… it's…"

Sasuke stands up, despite the stinging pain he felt in his head. All the hatred he felt, all the anger he felt, all that loneliness… everything flooded back to his mind. Sasuke's black eyes were replaced with the crimson eyes of the Sharingan, bearing all three tomoes.

"Why shouldn't I mind him, Itachi-kun? He is your brother after all… I want to see for myself how talented your 'foolish little brother', as you call him, is."

All the pain that Sasuke endured during the day his brother killed the whole clan surfaced, and he felt himself swept away with his hatred. The only thing on his mind was… to kill. "Die, Itachi."

Sasuke starts forming seals, jumps, and turns in the direction of the voices in mid-air. "Katon Goukakyuu no jutsu!!"

A large fireball escapes his mouth, engulfing the whole area with flames.

"Pfff, is that all your little brother can do, Itachi?"

Sasuke turns around only too see his brother and two other Akatsuki members in mid-air as well, talking casually among themselves.

"I think we should knock him unconscious like we did the others, Itachi-kun, Yomi-san, before he burns down the whole forest and alerts Konoha."

"Why should we even let him live? He's weak, and the weak don't deserve to live, yeah? Besides, he's going to become Orochimaru's container, so if we take care of that problem now…"

"No." Itachi's eyes were like cold ice, and with his full Sharingan eyes he looked truly evil. "Koujiro, finish the mission. Yomi, scout around for some of the ANBU which could be scouting. I'll handle my foolish little brother myself."

Sasuke lands on the burnt ground, and stares at the three Akatsuki members as they land right in front of him. The other two depart in different directions, leaving him alone with his brother.

"So, little brother, I see that you've acquired the full Sharingan. Have you acquired the Mangekyou Sharingan as well? Do you finally have the strength to fight and defeat me? Or will you be like our father who died like a worm before me?" mocks Itachi.

At the mention of 'father', Sasuke felt his anger burst out. He unleashed the first level of the curse seal.

"Ahh, that must be Orochimaru's forbidden curse seal. Interesting," says Itachi, with a bored tone.

"Hmph, he's underestimating me. I'll be the one laughing once I'm done with him."

Sasuke charges and starts doing hand seals. "Katon Housenka!!" Sasuke jumps, and spits out multiple blasts fire, then does a few more hand seals. "Jutsu Bunshin no Jutsu!!" The multiple blasts of fire then replicate and the sky is suddenly filled with a rain of fire.

"How pathetic…" Itachi shakes his head, and swings his cloak right at the rain of fire. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu!!"

Winds suddenly forms from Itachi's cloak, which blows away the fire and slightly cuts Sasuke's arms and legs.

Sasuke then flips in mid-air, lands on the trunk of a tree, takes out a kunai and launches himself right at Itachi.

"Die!!!!!"

Sasuke stabs Itachi, which then transforms into a mud bunshin. Itachi reappears behind him, grabs Sasuke's right leg and pulls Sasuke toward him. Sasuke then balances himself by grabbing the earth underneath him, while launching his left foot right at Itachi's face.

Itachi dodges and immediately sweeps both of Sasuke's hands and hits Sasuke's stomach, neck, and forehead, in quick succession, followed by a quick roundhouse kick right at Sasuke's back, causing him to fly towards another tree.

Sasuke changes his position and lands with his feet flat on the tree's trunk, and throws a barrage of kunai, followed by a few hand seals. "Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu!!"

The barrage of kunai replicates into a flood of kunai, which Itachi easily deflects with his own kunai.

"Heh, so you aren't as invincible as you thought you were, big brother," Sasuke says with an arrogant grin.

Blood was dripping from the hand Itachi used to deflect the kunai.

"I see, so you hid a kage kunai in a few kunai you had thrown. But I am still not impressed, little brother."

Itachi slowly closed his eyes for a second and opened them with the Mangekyou Sharingan activated.

"Do you understand the power of this Mangekyou Sharingan, my foolish little brother? You will never be capable of defeating me without your own Mangekyou Sharingan."

The Akatsuki member known as Yomi suddenly appeared right behind Itachi. "Itachi, it's going to get a little troublesome here, yeah? Konoha seems to have seen your little brother's fireworks earlier, and are coming here to investigate. And if those ANBU don't return, we might have the whole village down on us, yeah?"

Koujiro suddenly appears right beside Itachi as well. "The target has arrived. He seems to have considered our offer. And he has the scroll."

Meanwhile, Sasuke was already charging towards them, with the Chidori in his hands.

"Ahh, the Chidori… this is very interesting."

Sasuke kept charging, but was suddenly distracted by what the man called Koujiro said.

"How does he know about the Chidori!?! Who the hell is he?"

Sasuke blinked… and Itachi was gone.

"What?!?"

"I can't waste any more time on you, my foolish little brother," came a voice from behind him.

Itachi grabs Sasuke's left hand from behind and breaks Sasuke's whole arm. The Chidori dissipates, and after the quick crack followed Sasuke's scream of pain.

"What are you doing, Itachi? You'll bring those ANBU right to us, with all your little brother's screaming, yeah?"

"I'm not worried, Yomi…let them come…"

Yomi was clearly not satisfied with Itachi's answer, and turned to Koujiro.

"Tch, do you have enough chakra to use 'Nirvana' again, Koujiro? We aren't here to start a war… yet. Didn't I tell you awhile ago not to use it on that Uchiha boy?"

"Ahaha, you worry too much, Yomi-san. I just wanted to test if the Sharingan can dissipate my 'Nirvana'. Besides, the target has arrived."

Sasuke contained his screaming and looked at the newcomer, who was surrounded by the shadows. The newcomer seemed to be looking straight at him, apparently surprised to see him.

Koujiro takes a step forward and extends his hand out to the person in the shadows.

"Welcome, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto walks toward Koujiro, and finally leaves the shadows of the forest.

Sasuke was shocked. "This is… Naruto?"

Sasuke was surprised to see how much Naruto had grown. His face had matured a little and the scratch marks were a little longer than before. He was taller now, and his blonde hair was as just as spiky as always, just longer. He wasn't wearing the orange jump suit Sasuke was so accustomed to seeing; instead, he was wearing an open yellow jacket with a ninja vest underneath, and dark blue pants. In his hand was a large scroll with the symbol '4' on it.

As Naruto got closer, Sasuke noticed something glittering in Naruto's eyes. "Tears? Is Naruto… crying?"

"Let's go." Naruto's voice seemed cracked from crying.

"You're not going anywhere, you bastards!!!"

Masashi and Kuroro suddenly appear, jumping out of the darkness.

"Stop it! Masashi! Kuroro!" shouts Sasuke. "These… these guys are too strong. And we can't complete our mission, because Konoha has been alerted of intruders' presence. We need to retreat, and abandon the mission."

"What are you saying, Uchiha bastard? We must complete the mission, or Orochimaru will have our heads!!! And I won't forgive these Akatsuki idiots for treating us like weaklings a while ago. And they already had the upper hand to begin with, because they seemed to know we were coming."

Yomi steps up, with a very dangerous aura about him. "Tch, you ungrateful weaklings should even thanks us for not killing you. If Koujiro weren't here, you guys would be dead. Besides, you guys are just too damn careless, yeah? You tripped our detection trap, and the hooting owl was a sign for us that someone was right behind us."

"If you don't hinder our mission, then the ANBU won't be finding five dead Sound nin bodies in the forest," Koujiro states casually.

Fighting suddenly erupts in the bushes to the right. The sounds of clashing kunai was clear, and more voices were coming their way.

"Damn it!!! The ANBU!!! Alright, Uchiha, we retreat, but if Orochimaru sentences us to death, I'll make sure that I kill you before I die!" growled Masashi.

Sasuke turns around to finally head out into the dark forest, but takes one last look at his friend, who was now with the Akatsuki.

"Naruto…"

Naruto was looking at him too, and he suddenly sees the pain in Naruto's eyes, and what's more, an emotion that he himself had always felt.

Loneliness.

That emotion looked so wrong for Naruto, because Sasuke always saw Naruto as the energetic, loud-mouthed idiot who called him bastard and tried his best to outdo, outsmart, and outmatch him. Even in their battle at the Valley of the End, Naruto never showed this much pain in his eyes and always had that spark of determination.

But now, his eyes were different.

His eyes were dull, and lacked that certain spark of determination that he always had. It was as if Naruto was in some sort of unbreakable trance.

"What… what could have happened, that would break Naruto's spirit like this?"

Naruto finally turns around and starts walking towards Akatsuki. Sasuke takes his gaze off of Naruto and begins his retreat into the dark forest.

Flashback ends

Sasuke finally arrives at Orochimaru's large palace, and enters its massive doors. Inside, the 'Otokage' was standing in the hall, just out of reach of the sunlight coming through the palace entrance.

"So, Orochimaru-sama," Sasuke stresses with apparent sarcasm, "what do you want from me, you're only student whom you've ignored for a month?"

Orochimaru motions his hand to Rui, clearly making it known that he wanted to be alone with Sasuke. Rui leaves at this signal, and closes the doors behind her. Lamps along the hallway come to life, and the Sasuke sees Orochimaru's pale face and figure.

Sasuke could not help but feel utter disgust towards Orochimaru. The man had possessed another person's body four years ago, but he could no longer see any trace of the person in Orochimaru. The Orochimaru that stood before him now was the old Orochimaru, except a little taller. He still had that long dark hair, those small snake-like eyes, that pale skin, and that disgusting elongated tongue.

Sasuke cringed as he recalled that he was supposed to have been the one Orochimaru had possessed last year. However, he had just come back after the failed mission from Konoha, and still had the feelings he felt after fighting Itachi. His extreme hatred and the focus in his life-long mission to kill Itachi was so strong that it overwhelmed Orochimaru's mind transfer jutsu and forced him to withdraw.

"Don't be so cold to me, Sasuke-kun. I was merely planning our next move."

"Tch, what next move? You do know that Akatsuki has already beaten you since they already have Kyuubi!!!"

"But why haven't they done anything drastic yet? From what I know of them, they are still trying to expand their power and influence all over the Underground. They're still going about doing their 'missions', and they still strive not to let their presence be known in the other shinobi villages. Think, Sasuke. If they already have Kyuubi, why are they still hesitating?"

Sasuke knew this was true. Naruto had gone to Akatsuki a year ago, and yet it seems that Akatsuki had still not extracted the Kyuubi from Naruto. There was no news whatsoever of a nine-tailed demon fox ravaging any village, and news like that was quick to spread throughout the world.

"We've waited for over a year for Akatsuki to make the first move, but they still haven't done anything. This just means they're getting ready for something, my dear apprentice. Something very big. I don't think they'll extract Kyuubi till the last minute, partly because of its uncontrollable power and partly because it is a youma."

Orochimaru turns around, and motions Sasuke to follow him.

"We have much work to do, Sasuke-kun. Konoha's destruction will have to wait. We need to take some measures with regards to Akatsuki. My information network in that group was recently cut off, so we need to move before they do."

Sasuke follows Orochimaru into the depths of the palace, but his thoughts wander off into the darkness.

"Naruto… you've made things a lot more complicated than they used to be. You should have stayed in Konoha. You don't deserve to carry this darkness in your heart… the darkness that I bear because of my quest for revenge."

Sasuke touches his chest, and a feeling of guilt and torment escapes his heart and spreads throughout his whole body.

"Kakashi was right… living for revenge is like not living at all. I've realized that once I kill Itachi, I would have no reason to live whatsoever… but the wheels of my life have already turned, and I can't escape this path I've chosen. Naruto, escape now… before it's too late."

Meanwhile in a ramen shop in the Village of Sand…

Aaaaa-choooo!!!!

"Are you alright? Don't tell me you've caught a cold."

"Nah, it's just probably all this dust and sand. I'm fine!!!"

"Hahahaha! I'm sure that a good big bowl of ramen will cure that cold of yours."

The guy with the cold suddenly looks annoyed. "I told you, I don't have a cold!!"

He suddenly stands up and boasts, "My body resistance is too strong for stuff like that!"

"Ok, here you go!!! Three miso ramen bowls, for the two of you!! Enjoy!!!"

The guy who was originally standing up snatches two of the bowls and quickly grabs some chopsticks from a container to the right. "Ahhhh!!! Thank you!!! I'm sooo hungry!!!"

The other guy calmly takes his bowl from the ramen girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Ramen Girl."

The ramen girl blushes. "Oh, th-thank you. Um, by the way, I don't think I've seen either of you around here. Are you new here?"

None of the guys answer her because both were too busy eating. The ramen girl just goes on dreamily as she stares at the more refined one.

After a few minutes of silence, the ramen girl suddenly speaks out again. "Blondes are quite rare in this village… And the two of you have the same hair color. Are you brothers?"

"Oh no, miss, we're not," says the more refined one, as the other one continues drinking his second bowl of ramen like a vacuum cleaner. "We're just fellow travelers, and good friends." He finishes his bowl of ramen and notices his companion sticking a piece of paper on the bowl. He glares at his companion, who then sighs and takes off the piece of paper from the bowl. He then stands up and smiles at the ramen girl. "Well, we should be going. Thank you for such a fine bowl of ramen, miss."

The other guy also stands and smiles towards her. "Yeah, yeah, thanks!!! When we come back, I'll make sure I go back here to eat!!!"

The two put on their straw hats and the ramen girl just stares dreamily at the pair, particularly at the more refined one, as they walk towards the village gates. "Come back soon!!!" she shouts.

The two strangers continue walking through a sand storm in the wastelands, seemingly taking in all the sights of their surroundings.

"Well, the mission wasn't as bad as I thought it would go. We even got to eat in their ramen shop without them knowing it!! This must have been our easiest mission yet, ne, Koujiro?"

Koujiro suddenly stops and strains his eyes ahead and into the storm of dust before them. Ten shadows of cloaked sand nin suddenly appear.

"Well, it looks like you're wrong again. I told you we shouldn't have stopped by that ramen shop on our way out," Koujiro states in a joking manner.

"But, but, Koujiro, I was hungry!!! I needed something to eat!!!"

"Ah, don't worry. At least we get some exercise immediately after we ate." Koujro smiles at the group of sand nins hiding in the sand storm. "Don't get in our way, if you ninjas don't want to die."

A voice inside the storm suddenly speaks out. "Hmph, you're the ones who will die if you don't identify yourselves and tell us what you were doing in our village."

"Alright then. We'll identify ourselves. I am Arashi Koujiro, and my companion over here is Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto grins wide. "And we were here to steal the Village of Sand's forbidden scroll, you bunch of losers!!!"

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Glossary:

**_Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu - Fire Release: Grand Fireball Skill;_** the user expels a huge fireball from his/her mouth, burning a large area.

**_Katon Housenka - Fire Release: Phoenix Fire;_** a jutus wherein the user expels multiple blasts of fire from his/her mouth, while focusing on just one target.

**_Kamaitachi no Jutsu - Wind Sickle Skill; _**a jutsu that requires a medium for the wind to be used; the wind is strong enough to extinguish flames and are as sharp as sickles.

**_Jutsu Bunshin no Jutsu -_** a jutsu which creates an illusion of the the jutsu used before it; it is used to distract or confuse the opponent with the real thing; however, the stronger the jutsu it tries to create an illusion of, the more chakra it uses up.

**_Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu -_**a jutsu which creates replications of the original kunai thrown; however, these replications are just illusions and cannot really hurt the target.

**_Kage Kunai -_** a technique wherein a second kunai is hidden in the shadow of the first one.

**_Mangekyou Sharingan_** -the highest level of Sharingan that can be possessed by the Uchiha clan; it is said that only a handful of people have ever achieved this.

**_Nirvana -_** a secret genjutsu used by Arashi Koujiro; takes up a lot of chakra,however, not even the Sharingan can cancel it out; other details about this genjutsu are unknown (why would I spoil it for you? I'll explain this genjutsu as the story goes along)

Author's Note: Ok, I hope you like this chapter. I'll also explain in the course of the story why Naruto seems so out of character in the main timeline even though he was so disturbed in the past timeline. Review please!!!


	5. Red Dawn

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Well, here I am again. Thanks for all the reviews, I really appreciate it. Anyway, I decided not to make this chapter that heavy duty with fighting and angst,(although there still is some angst). I hope you guys like this chapter.

Normal - conversations/narrations

_Italics -thoughts, voices in the head_

**_Italic Bold - Jutsus_**

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"Heh, that was good exercise, ne, Koujiro?"

Koujiro looks at Naruto and smiles. Naruto was improving so quickly that he had almost reached some of the S-ranked criminals' level without invoking the power of Kyuubi. Not only was he a quick learner when it came to jutsus, he also learned more about the opponent that he was fighting the longer that they fought. Naruto's power of insight almost rivaled his now, and he, Koujiro, also known as Akatsuki's Calculator, was known to have "the insight of the Sharingan", mainly because he could calculate the enemy's movements so quickly in his head that he was capable of calculating almost every angle and point of attack that was possible.

Naruto had also improved his taijutsu far beyond what he once possessed. He was already one of the fastest nins in Akatsuki, and with his Shunshin no jutsu, even Itachi had quite a hard time keeping up with his speed.

Koujiro lets out a slight laugh, because he just couldn't connect how the loud, rash, hot-headed Naruto could be so cool, collected, and strategic, in a heated battle. He wasn't expecting this noisy ninja to actually develop and mature so quickly; he remembered as he trained Naruto for only a year, and he was this good already. He could only marvel at how much Naruto could still improve.

Naruto had also changed from the first time he had come to Akatsuki. Back then, he was always depressed during his first few weeks in the headquarters, and he wouldn't even talk to anybody. Koujiro sighed as he remembered how he had talked to Naruto and helped him forget his past.

"_And now… although Naruto still has that slight childishness with him, he can now be considered mature… maybe even mature enough to learn the truth…"_

The wastelands come to an end and give way to valleys as they begin to enter the western border of the Country of Fire. Naruto stops right on a cliff overlooking the beautiful valleys of the Fire Country, and turns to Koujiro.

"Where's the meeting going to be, anyway?"

Koujiro didn't answer. He seemed to have been thinking rather deeply for the whole trip towards the Fire Country, and Naruto wasn't used to Koujiro being like this. He treated Koujiro just like an older brother, due to the fact that Koujiro seemed to be so familiar to him, and yet he just couldn't put a finger on it…besides, he didn't feel that comfortable with the other Akatsuki members… most especially Uchiha Itachi. He liked to call Itachi 'bastard' behind his back, much like he called Sasuke back then.

Naruto knew that the only instances that Koujiro became this serious was when he had to face a really strong opponent or if he was experiencing a big issue, and he couldn't imagine what could be bothering Koujiro at a time like this.

"Uh, Koujiro? Are you alright? I have no idea where we're going so…"

"Hmm? Oh sorry, I was just thinking of some stuff… anyway, we're going north of here."

Naruto looked puzzled. "To the Hidden Village of Rain? But why are we meeting there? Just a little west of that village is…"

"We won't be going back just yet. We're needed there… so that we can start the operation."

Naruto looked excited. "Is this about the Chuunin exams? Damn, I'd love to join it again!!!"

But Naruto's excitement is short-lived. A dark cloud falls on his face, and a look of loneliness glints in his eyes.

"_That's right… I can't take that test anymore. I can't…"_

Naruto reaches inside his Akatsuki cloak, taking out his scratched forehead protector, which they only wear in the middle of a mission. He looks at the scratch, and his hand tightens on the protector, trying to fight back the tears in his eyes.

Koujiro looked sympathetic. "You still miss it, don't you? Even after what they did to you, even after what they said to you, you still want to go back? Back to Konoha?"

"I… I don't know what I want. A part of me wants go back, to see the faces of all my friends again, to walk in the streets of that village, even if I am a missing nin to them right now… but the other part doesn't want to go back. It doesn't want to experience what it felt on that day… and I can't bear to face Ero-sennin, Tsunade-baba, Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, and all the others again… not after what I did…"

Naruto heard Koujiro sigh. He didn't understand if the sigh was supposed to be for him being a guy who could not forget the past or for him being a guy who had lost his home. Koujiro was strange sometimes.

Naruto puts back his forehead protector into the cloak and look on as they start to move to the north, passing through the rocky cliffs leading to the green grass down below.

A few hours later…

Naruto and Koujro had set-up a camp of sorts in the forests just south of the Rain Village. Both were sitting by the fire, and laughing as they remembered the past year in Akatsuki.

Naruto was laughing loudly as he was eating a fish that they had roasted by the fire.

"… And do you remember what we used to tease Kisame with whenever we went camping back then?" Naruto's face was red from all that laughing, and it looked like he had no plans to eat the fish on the stake because of his laughter.

Koujiro would not stop laughing either. "Ahahaha, yeah I remember!!!" He holds up his roasted fish and says with a laugh, "Hey Kisame! Your relatives taste really good!!!"

"Yeah, yeah! And I also remember Girachi saying 'What do you get when Itachi uses Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu on Kisame? …Roasted Kisame!!! And what do you get when Itachi uses Katon Karyuudan on an angry Kisame?' "

"Oh wait, wait, I'll answer this one... a Deep-fried Puffed-up Kisame!" laughs Koujiro. "But really, we should stop picking on Kisame when we get together… he's always the main target for jokes, and he gets angry so quickly… maybe we should pick on Meimi next?"

"Meimi? That mood-swinging paper-loving tomboy? Heh, I would rather not… you remember what happened to Yomi the last he made a joke about her…" Naruto shudders.

"Hmmm… oh yeah, now I remember. She placed a bunch of exploding tag traps, exploding paper needle traps, and wire traps which triggered a flurry of kunai, a flood of shuriken, and a bunch of katanas poking from the floor right inside Yomi's residence back in the village… haha, when he got back from a mission, he got so pissed at her for placing all those traps all over the place. I remember him dumping a sack full of kunai, shuriken, and katanas rightin front ofMeimi while they arguing." Koujiro laughs out loud. "Hmmm… maybe she is a bad idea to make jokes about."

Naruto laughs, and looks at the fire. He thought about the year he was with the Akatsuki, and he had discovered something that no other ninja had discovered from Akatsuki: they weren't cold-blooded killers who had no life and only lived like a bunch of pissed off hermits. They also had lives of their own, and they were just like any shinobi out there.

Naruto looks up from the fire and takes out his forehead protector. Seeing the Leaf's symbol made him remember the past, but he knew that his path was now set before him.

"Kyuubi…" mumbles Naruto.

"Hmm? Did you say something, Naruto?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing." Naruto smiles and then suddenly confused. "By the way, I've been wondering this for the longest time…why don't you have a forehead protector? From what village did you come from? Don't they have a forehead protector?"

It was now Koujiro's time to look into the fire, clearly being reminded of something long past. "I… I'm an orphan, you see. I was picked up by a village during the war, and I was taken care by the village leader. I was not permitted to become a shinobi of that village because they thought that I was from the enemy village, I was hated because they learned that I was from the enemy village, and they decided to even place ANBU guards around because if I went back to my home village, they were afraid I would spill their secrets." Koujiro sighed.

"But the village leader didn't believe what the vast majority believed and taught me a lot of his techniques, some of which were not even taught to his own students. He became like a father to me… and then he adopted another child when I was 10.

He assigned me to take care of the baby, because he would go somewhere and he knew that there was a possibility that he wasn't coming back. He never did, and without his protection, I was kicked out of the village, with the ANBU sent to kill me once I had reached the border. They never found me... I guess I was just lucky back then. The child was left behind in that village."

Koujiro looks away from the fire and stares at the night sky above. "I never got a forehead protector."

Naruto looked sympathetically at Koujiro. "Sorry if I reminded you of your past. I didn't know…"

"That's ok, Naruto-kun." Koujiro smiles, starts walking toward a tree. "We should be getting some sleep. We have another mission ahead of us in the Rain Village."

"Ok!" Naruto shouts in reprisal. "Tomorrow, we get another good exercise!!" He was grinning, and he suddenly felt excited at the prospect of finally being able to visit a new shinobi village. "Good night!!"

Koujiro looked at Naruto as he slept.

"_So, he does not suspect one bit. But when the truth is revealed to him, I wonder how he will react? He already knows that he will become a weapon for Akatsuki when the time comes, but he doesn't seem too bothered. But what will happen if I tell him…"_

Koujiro felt a pang of guilt as he thought about what he did to Naruto just to get him on their side.

"_I wonder if this was all necessary? But you told me to watch over him and protect him, so that the Kyuubi would not be unsealed before Naruto would learn how to fully control him, and this was the only way I knew of bringing him closer to me. The blood pact keeps Kyuubi close to Naruto, and as long as the pact exists, Kyuubi will continue helping Naruto. Besides, less lives will be lost with my decision… but I wonder if I did the right thing, ne, Yondaime Hokage-sama?"_

Darkness. Complete darkness.

Naruto went straight ahead, into the darkness, and finally came upon that door he knew so well.

He opens those extremely large doors and enters a cold, damp chamber, lighted up by torches which encircled the room. In front of him are extremely large vertical bars with a small seal placed right in the middle of the bars. Behind the prison bars, he could feel the breath of a fearsome creature, a creature that was sealed inside his own body.

A youma.

Kyuubi.

"Hey, damn fox!!! Why the heck did you interrupt my beautiful dream?!? What did I do this time?"

Large eyes suddenly open, and menacing jaws suddenly shine behind the iron bars.

"Stupid kid… I just brought you here because I wanted to talk to you again."

"What do you want know, damn fox? Will you finally teach me a new jutsu again?"

"Hmph, you sure are arrogant kid… but I guess you've earned a little of my respect. You were able to learn the hijutsus and the tenjutsus that I taught you exceptionally quickly… hehe, you're even capable of using one-handed seals whenever you release my chakra to meld with yours. You are one amazing idiotic kid," laughs the Kyuubi.

"However," states the Kyuubi in a dangerous tone, "I would not get too close to that Arashi Koujiro, if I were you. I sense something… different about him."

Naruto takes on a serious face, and takes a step forward toward Kyuubi. "I trust him, you damn fox. He's taught me a lot of stuff as well, and I believe in him."

"Hmph. Stupid, naïve kid… they're just using you, you know. And that means they're also using me. Damn, I HATE being used by others. Besides, he smells like the red-head from the Sand Village who has Shukaku inside him… Gaara, was it? I'm just telling you to be careful, kid. You're far too trusting."

"Heh, I know that they're just using me, fox. They're goals aren't all that bad, you know."

"So for you, destroying all the shinobi villages so that Akatsuki can achieve absolute supremacy isn't bad? The Cleansing, isn't it? Ahahaha, I like their idea, but I would like it better if I would be the one doing the cleansing." The demon fox smiles evilly, clearly looking forward to the idea.

"To create a whole new world, to achieve a new dawn, blood must flow throughout the lands. Supreme power is reserved to those who can give birth to Akatsuki, the Red Dawn," recites Naruto.

"I don't care if I'm just a tool, as long as there aren't any more people like me, Haku, and Gaara… people who live in loneliness throughout their lives because of society's hate. I don't want people to experience that same thing that I experienced, and with the new society, maybe that can happen…"

Kyuubi looks at Naruto, clearly surprised that a rowdy young man like him could think of such things. "You really are a naïve, innocent kid… I've seen this world countless times, and I have always seen hate, anger, war, and loneliness. The world changes, people change, but emotions remain the same. Giving birth to a new dawn will not change that."

It was Naruto's to be surprised at Kyuubi's words. It was the first time he had heard the demon fox say any words of wisdom to him.

"_Wow, this fox can actually be decent sometimes. I thought youmas didn't care for anything but death and destruction."_

Kyuubi seemed to have sensed Naruto's thoughts and suddenly retreats into the darkness of his cell. "Hmph, go do whatever you want. I'm happy as long as I get to move out of this hellhole, and finally go to your world to destroy it."

Naruto smiled. It was the first time he had actually smiled in the presence of the demon fox. Somewhere deep within him, he felt a newfound respect for the youma, even if he knew that someday it would eventually come out to destroy everything.

Naruto turns around and heads out of the room, slowly closing the doors behind him.

Kyuubi smiled. "_The kid is much more mature than I was expecting. He's very interesting, for a human. I'll try helping him out more often. Yes, I'll do that." _Kyuubi closes its eyes, and prepares for its sleep. However, sleep would not come.

_"As long as there are people in the world that fight to protect something, you will never be able fully unleash your terror. We have always sealed you, and we will seal you again for ages to come."_

_"Why do try stopping me, yellow one? This village is worthless, and yet you would risk your life for it?"_

_"I have something to protect, damn fox. All my family, all my friends, all the people who are looking up to me as someone who will be able to save them… I am the 4th Hokage, and the will of Konoha is set upon my shoulders!! Even if I die, other people will inherit my will, and Konoha will continue to stand!!!"_

Kyuubi opens his eyes once again, remembering the 4th's words in their battle.

"Hehe, 4th, this kid has inherited your will of fire, that will which can change even the course of destiny. But has he chosen the right path to live his life?" Kyuubi finally closes its eyes and continues its slumber, dreaming of the events that are to come.

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Author's Note: Hmmm, the plot thickens! Well, I hope you liked this chapter. It's getting pretty hard to write while I have school. I'm doing my best though.


	6. Flirting in the Rain

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...(I really wish I did, though)

Note: Well, here I am again. Thanks for the good reviews, people. Here goes the next chapter.

Normal - conversations/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics Bold - jutsus_**

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"Aaahhhh, Koujiro, just one question: What are we supposed to do here?"

Naruto and Koujiro are sitting in a ramen shop inside the Hidden Village of Rain, dressed in gray robes and eating ramen.

"I can't tell you yet. Not until the target arrives," replies Koujiro, after sipping from his bowl of ramen.

"The target? Wait a minute… I don't even know what our target is!!! Is this supposed to be a very high level operation that you won't even tell me anything about it?" says a very annoyed Naruto.

"Shhh… keep your voice down. We can't afford to be found out now."

Naruto sighs. They had entered the village without much trouble at all, even though they looked awfully suspicious in their robes and their ANBU masks. It even seemed as if they were expected to come.

Voices are suddenly heard behind them and to the right, and they were getting closer. Naruto tries to take a peek outside but Koujiro stops him.

"Put on your ANBU mask, Naruto."

Naruto follows Koujiro's orders, and takes the ANBU mask Koujiro gave him earlier in the morning and puts it on.

"_I really wonder where he got this thing…"_

Naruto's train of thought is interrupted as someone parts the cloth which covers the ramen shop.

Naruto's eyes suddenly open wide in disbelief. This newcomer had long brown spiky hair with small sideburns which were obviously not kept neat because of the strands sticking out, which also made his hair seem spikier than it really should have been. His pale skin seemed to match the aura of mysteriousness around him, and coupled with the pale white robe he wore, he looked like a ghost. But what surprised Naruto the most were those small shades which blocked out the newcomer's eyes, and those shades were what reminded him of the person he had met long ago.

Aburame Shino.

Shino suddenly looks at Koujiro and him. "So this is where the two of you are." Naruto was shocked at this and looked at Koujiro, who didn't look back.

"You were supposed to have gone directly to the rain daimyo to announce our arrival. You're making life harder for us, you know," Shino says in his usual deep and mysterious voice.

Naruto was still in disbelief as he stood up, walked past Shino, and started leaping up the buildings together with Koujiro. Shino stood there staring at them for a moment and then caught up with them after a few seconds.

"You are under my command, understand? I know that it's my first time to order ANBU around, but I am your squad leader for this mission, and I expect you to follow orders, not to go off and take a break somewhere. When we get back to the village, you will be severely reprimanded."

"_Wow, Shino talks a lot more now than he used to back then. But those eyes, that calm attitude, and that monotone voice… he still feels as creepy as ever."_

Shino seemed to have taken their silence as an affirmative response, and for the whole trip to the Daimyo's mansion, no one said a word.

The mansion that housed the Daimyo was actually quite small, but Naruto figured that a small village didn't need a really big building for the daimyo anyway. They walk inside, take a few flights of stairs, and finally find themselves inside the daimyo's office.

The leader of The Hidden Village of Rain, the Rain Daimyo, was sitting on a chair similar to what the Hokage sat on in Konoha. Naruto studies him carefully, taking all the details into account. He measured the daimyo's age to be just a little older than Jiraiya, but he also looked too thin and frail for his age.

Shino had now worn his ANBU mask, and was now moving to the left of the table with both Naruto and Koujiro following suit. A few minutes later, two more ANBU members knock and enter the door, both wearing their face masks, moving towards the right of the table, just opposite Naruto and Koujiro. An uneasy silence seemed to hang in the air as they just stood there, noiseless and unmoving.

"_Damn, what the heck am I doing here?"_ Naruto's eyes dart from the kage, to the ANBU right opposite to him, to the door. _"Why this it feel so tense in here? And who the hell are we waiting for?"_

A full ten minutes pass as Naruto and the others just stand there, unmoving, but with an occasional cough from the ANBU opposite them. Naruto could tell that those two in front of them were new to the job, and he could see and feel the nervousness that they were trying to mask.

Another five minutes pass, and the daimyo finally stands in impatience. "You, aren't you the head of the ANBU squad?" pointing his finger directly at Shino. "What the hell happened to the other nins who were supposed to come here?"

Shino looks directly at the daimyo and says in his usual voice, "I don't know."

Voices are suddenly heard down below, rising up and coming closer to them.

Shino looks at the door, then back at the daimyo. "I do believe that that's them."

The daimyo sits down in frustration, and a look of anger was clearly etched on his face. "Your leaf nins had better have a good reason for coming here late."

The voices were now close and a few seconds later, a loud knock is heard from the door, followed by the daimyo's response of, "Come in."

Naruto's eyes went even wider in surprise and disbelief as he saw the nins enter the room.

The one leading the way, with a very loud and rash voice, unkempt hair, and a dog by his side was Inuzuka Kiba. He looked a little taller than he did back then, and he was wearing a chuunin vest. He was talking to a pretty but pale girl shorter than him, with hair just a little longer than her shoulder. She just seemed to be listening to Kiba, without even interrupting him. Naruto suddenly saw the white, almost pupil-less eyes of the girl, and realized that she was Hyuuga Hinata.

Right behind them was Kiba, Hinata, and Shino's former jounin sensei, the beautiful mistress of illusions, Yuhei Kurenai. She seemed to be reprimanding someone behind her, that Naruto could not yet see because Kurenai was blocking his view.

Kurenai seemed to have noticed that everyone was looking at her, because she suddenly moves a little to the right to reveal the figure of a white-haired, masked ninja. Hatake Kakashi.

Kurenai clears her throat and Kiba suddenly quiets down. "I'm sorry, Rain Daimyo, if we kept you waiting. My associate here," Kurenai motions to Kakashi, "states that he encountered some problems during… his morning… routine," Kurenai states with a little sarcasm.

The man stands up, clearly angry at all this, shouting, "You damn leaf nins!!! Don't you know that I have other things better to do than wait for you to come!!! If this meeting wasn't a formal meeting for peace relations and an alliance with Konoha, then I probably wouldn't have even entertained your request for an audience!!!"

There was an uneasy silence following the daimyo's speech, with no one even making a sound or a move at all. He glares at all the leaf nins, sits in frustration, and takes deep breaths to relax.

"So… anyway, you are here to discuss an alliance and peace treaty between our villages, correct? Is the current peace treaty between the five countries not enough?"

It was Kakashi's turn to respond. "As you may now know, the Wave Country has broken that treaty by raiding one of the Lightning Country's small towns. When we sent our scouts over to the area, they were ambushed by some Cloud nins, saying that the Hidden Mist and the Hidden Leaf had made a secret alliance. They were saying that they heard those words from the ninjas that attacked that small village, and for proof they had showed the scouts the forehead protectors of both the Hidden Mist and the Hidden Leaf. Half of the scouts were killed in that ambush, while the other half were wounded, and had to return to Konoha.

"However, on the way back, those scouts who had escaped were attacked by ninjas from the Hidden Village of Stone. Almost all the scouts were wiped out, while the ones who survived were severely injured and barely made it back to Konoha..."

"So basically, what you're proposing is that our two hidden villages form an alliance just in case an all-out ninja war begins, just like what happened many years ago? Hmm… interesting…" interrupts the daimyo.

Naruto eyes the Village of Rain's leader carefully. _"This guy doesn't seem to be thinking about the alliance… he's just probably thinking how he can expand Hidden Rain's territory… he knows that this village is stronger compared to other smaller hidden villages, and he also knows that this village is surrounded by the Hidden Stone, the Hidden Sand and the Hidden Leaf... this village actually holds a strategic position if a war begins, so whoever holds this village will automatically have an advantage…"_

"So you will consider our offer?" interjects Kurenai.

"Yes… yes, I will consider it… for now." A sly smile creeps up in the daimyo's face.

"Alright, please send word to Konoha of your decision, daimyo-sama. We'll be leaving you now." Kakashi states in a careful tone.

"But won't you stay at least a day in this village? You're still probably tired from your journey here. Besides, having Leaf ninjas protecting my territory for even a day can sway my decision…" The sly smile widens too a grin, and Naruto could see that the daimyo was already formulating plans.

Naruto and Koujiro leave the daimyo's mansion together with the leaf nins, and they walk quite a distance away before Kiba starts complaining.

"Damn that daimyo!!! He's using us, and Konoha!!! He knows that he and his village hold an advantage because three major ninja villages would want this place, especially in war!!!" Kiba shouting angrily, as if they were the only people in the area.

"Be quiet, Kiba," Shino states in an agitated tone. Naruto sensed that Shino had also been quite upset by how the daimyo had treated them.

"W-well, at least he said that he would think about it, didn't he?" Hinata wasn't looking straight at them; she still hadn't seemed to get over her shyness.

"He did, but he didn't even confirm if he would tell us of his decision. That damn bastard!!! Who does he think he is?!?" Kiba was really letting his emotions loose, and his complaints caught the attention of many of the civilians in the area.

"Anyway, it seems that we'll be staying here for at least a day," Kakashi says in a bored tone. "If I were you guys, I'd go around the town and look for something to do instead of complaining here and creating a disturbance." With that, Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Kakashi's right, we might as well make our stay here worthwhile… Hinata, would you like to come with me?" asks Kurenai.

"N-no… it's ok… I'll probably just walk around here…"

"Heh, I'll go with her then!" Kiba says enthusiastically, with a big grin on his face. However, when he realizes that everyone was looking at him, his face takes on a more nervous look. "Something might happen you know, haha…"

"Alright then, I'll go and walk around alone," Shino says. "You guys are dismissed too," Shino motions towards Naruto, Koujiro, and the two other ANBU. But remember, we all stay in the same hotel, so make sure you're back in the hotel before 9:00 this evening. And no getting yourselves drunk." With that, Shino starts walking away in the opposite direction and into the crowd.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going now." Kurenai disappears the same way as Kakashi does.

"Well, let's go, Hinata!!" Kiba cries out.

"A-alright."

Naruto walks around the town randomly, not even caring if he was going around in circles. He still had not found anything to do, and since Koujiro left him, telling him that he needed to do something, he found himself alone in a village that he had never been in.

He suddenly stops right in front of a bookstore, and, finding nothing better to do, enters it.

"_Hmmm… maybe I can finally read the latest issue of Come Come Paradise? I remember Kisame having volume four, while I think Sato has the third one… hmmm… let's see… 'R-18' section…"_

Naruto moves through the store, looking at the headers of each shelf. He then sees the header 'R-18' and 'Adult' and takes a left at the shelves, only to see Hinata looking at the shelves.

Naruto didn't actually notice her four years ago, and after that incident that happened a year ago, he decided that maybe being in the same section as she was a bad idea…it could trigger unwanted memories…

"Um, don't you want to take your mask off? I-it must be getting stuffy, having to breath through a mask…"

Naruto turns around and finds Hinata looking at him directly, with a shy yet curious look in her eyes.

"_Wow… was she this pretty 4 years ago? Wait a minute, during that incident a year ago, the Hinata that I saw was almost exactly the same as I had remembered her before I left for training with Jiraiya…"_

"Um… are you alright? B-because you haven't moved for a full minute on that spot…" Hinata says shyly, her cheeks becoming red.

Naruto snaps back to reality, and places his right hand behind his head, laughing. "Ahaha, sorry. I was just… captivated… by you."

With the word 'captivated', Hinata blushed even more. Naruto didn't think that she could go any redder than she was right now.

"Ahhh, my mask? Um, ahaha, I don't take my mask off because… because… _"Come on, think of something!" _"because Shino didn't want us to!" _"What a pathetic excuse…"_

"Oh, is that right? Why would he do that?"

"Ahaha, that's because he caught me and my friend eating in a ramen shop instead of going straight to the daimyo, as was the plan."

"Oh, I see…"

Naruto was looking straight at Hinata, and couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. She talked a lot more now, and at least she had overcome a little of her shyness.

"So, um, ahh, what are you doing in a place like this?" asks Naruto, but suddenly realizes that they were in the 'R-18' section of the bookstore. "Oh wait, no, I meant…"

Hinata giggles a little and starts moving past Naruto and out of the area. "I'm with Inuzuka Kiba," she says as she walks along the path between the shelves.

Naruto follows her, reaches down at her hand, and squeezes it. Hinata turns in surprise, and Naruto actually blushed when he saw her face again.

"_Wait a minute!!! She has the Byakugan! I can't let her see my face… I have to take her eyes away from me… But I want to spend time with her, just to get to know her a little…"_

"Hmmm, why don't we ditch dog-boy and go see a movie or something like that? Staying here is pretty boring, and you probably don't want to spend the rest of today holed up in here. What is he doing here anyway?"

"Kiba's looking at a book… I-I think it was called Come Come Paradise or something like that." She was looking at him rather curiously. Naruto found her really cute.

"_I can't believe the dog bastard is also a fan of that… I guess Kakashi must have tough competition when it comes to getting the book now that it's becoming more and more famous in Konoha…"_

"…Um, a movie? Sure, I-I'll go with you… I'm sure Kiba wouldn't mind… um, it's not as if he'll be finishing it anytime soon anyway, and at least you try to do things w-with me. Besides, you're an ANBU from Konoha, so I guess you can be trusted…" Hinata says while blushing.

Naruto grins behind the mask. "Hehe, ok let's go!!!"

It was almost nighttime, and Koujiro knew that it was almost time to strike. He watches as the daimyo leaves his mansion, turns into the main street and heads off towards the forest. Seconds later, rain jounins move out of the mansion and spread throughout the village, with about ten of them following the Rain Daimyo. Koujiro smiles.

"_So, he also doesn't trust the other countries as long as they haven't offered an alliance… sending jounins to watch over this small village in case of attack is a good move, daimyo, however…"_

Koujiro starts moving towards the Hidden Rain Temple, a place where rain nins are usually promoted from chuunins to jounins.

Upon arriving, he immediately takes care of the two rain nins standing guards by slitting their throats even before they could react. _"Hmmm, not much security… that's good. This operation will be easier than I thought…"_

It was 7:00 in evening already, and Naruto was walking around the Hidden Rain with Hinata. They had both liked the movie "The Snow Princess: Part 2", and were now just talking and laughing.

"Wow, I-I've never had this much fun… um, thanks a lot, Kou-san."

Naruto had decided to use Koujiro's name, except that he replaced Koujiro with Kou. Although he had been tempted many times to just take off his mask and reveal himself to her, he had always remembered regretfully that he wasn't part of Konoha any longer and that this good time with Hinata would be the last one as well.

"Ahaha, that's ok, I needed a break too anyway… these jobs get tedious sometimes. And don't worry, I had a lot of fun too," Naruto says excitedly.

Suddenly, Naruto senses a fast moving kunai aimed right at him and turns to the right, just in time to catch the kunai in mid-air using his middle and ring finger. And the person who had thrown it… was Inuzuka Kiba.

Kiba was clearly extremely angry, and would have attacked Naruto if Hinata had not gone between them.

"What the heck are you doing, you arrogant mask boy? Why the hell are you with Hinata?!?"

Naruto shrugs. "I asked her to go out with me since she seemed to be bored. Why? Do you have any problems with that?"

It was good that it was already a little dark, or else Naruto might have rolled on the floor laughing because of Kiba's furious red face. Hinata tries to separate them both but gets pushed aside by Kiba.

"You arrogant ANBU shit!! I'm gonna kick your ass right here, right now!!" Kiba screams as he aims a punch right at Naruto.

A masked ANBU suddenly appears beside Naruto and stops Kiba's punch before it reaches Naruto's face. Naruto also hears someone whisper in his ear, "We're getting out of here, Naruto. The operation is over. We don't need to be here any longer."

Naruto nods, and bows his head at Hinata. "Sorry if I can't continue to be around you anymore, but we need to leave you know. I had a great time with you, and I hope we can go out again sometime."

Hinata shyly bows her head slightly, and says in usual shy voice, "Ok, bye, Kou-san. I also had a good time, maybe we can get together sometime? Anyway, bye." She shyly smiles at Naruto, and Naruto feels his heart beat a little bit faster.

"Ok, bye."

Naruto and Koujiro were moving silently away from the village, and Naruto was exceptionally quiet during their trip. They had also taken off the robes that they were wearing, but not the masks just in case a few rain nin found them.

After a long silence, Koujiro decides to break the reverie. "So… you like her?"

Naruto looks at Koujiro, and laughs a little. "I guess… yeah, I do."

Koujiro stops and turns toward the village. "If you like her, Naruto, then you'd better go back to the Hidden Rain." Koujiro sounded sympathetic, and Naruto couldn't understand why he wanted him to go back.

"The Rain Nins are going to kill the Leaf Nins. I went to their ninja temple a while ago to finish the operation, and I heard the nins there talking about a secret alliance between the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Rain. The Hidden Stone nins will "attack" the Hidden Rain Village tonight, and the leaf nins will be obligated to defend it. In the midst of this battle, the rain nins were ordered to backstab the Hidden Leaf."

Naruto was stunned at this news, but his astonishment is eventually turned to anger. He hurries back to the Hidden Rain, with Koujiro following him a few seconds later.

Koujiro looks at the enraged Naruto ahead of him. _"So, it has come. The All-out Ninja War is about to begin."_

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Author's Note: Okay, you guys finally get what you wanted, a pairing!! Well, actually, it's NaruHinaKiba right now, but oh well. I kinda liked this chapter... anyway, I'll try to update as soon as possible. Hope you guys and girls liked this chapter! Review please!!!


	7. My Friends, My Enemies

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Well, here I am again. Thanks for all those positive reviews for my last chapter. I really appreciate it. I really liked that chapter too, hehe. Anyway, here's the new one. Hope you guys and girls enjoy it.

Normal - conversations/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in the person's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

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Kakashi throws three kunai, hitting two of the stone nins lurking in the shadows and wounding the other on the pelvis with pinpoint accuracy. He still could not believe that the Hidden Rain's watcher nins had not seen any of these stone nins enter the village. He had already killed four stone nins who had tried to kill him while he was lying on his bed in the hotel, and he had found that Shino had already taken care of three when he entered Shino's room to warn him.

Kakashi hides in the dark alleyways as he spots five more stone nins coming his way.

"_Damn it, how many are there?!? It's clearly impossible for those watcher nins to miss such a large force of ninjas… maybe the Daimyo had planned this all along?"_

Kakashi suddenly jumps to the right as a large spike erupts from underneath him. The large spike then grows out smaller spikes which launch themselves right at him.

"_Judging by the jutsus used, there are even some jounin among them… what else could this be but a trap by the both the Hidden Rain and the Hidden Stone… I don't even see any more rain nins fighting with us… Shit, where's Kurenai?!? We need to round up the team and get out of here!!!"_

One of the spikes catches Kakashi's left arm as he dodges, but he barely flinches. _"I guess I have no other alternative but to use this…"_ Kakashi lifts the forehead protector covering his left eye, exposing the Sharingan. With it, he could predict most of the movements of the ninjas… that is, if he could even see them.

The stone ninjas seemed to have found excellent hiding places, which made fighting them harder. An unseen enemy was dangerous, and he had to shift the battle to his advantage.

Suddenly, Kakashi hears a scream from above him, followed by two bodies falling right on top of him.

"_Drained of all their chakra… it must be the work of Shino's Kikai bugs."_

Kakashi decides to move up towards Shino's position, although going on top of the buildings would make him a sitting duck for the enemy.

But instead, he sees Shino jumping down from the building, followed by a stream of kunai coming from atop the buildings.

"They're all over the place, Kakashi-san. Not only that, the Rain nins have started attacking us as well. It seems that this was a well-planned trap."

Kakashi couldn't help his worrying. He knew that he was strong, but having to face every single rain nin in this entire village and all those stone nins who had just arrived brought them into a troublesome situation.

A crack from the ground alerts Kakashi and Shino of an upcoming ground jutsu, and both jump exactly a second before the ground erupts and a multitude of dagger-like spikes pop out of the ground, covering the entire area of the street.

A sudden rain of needles immediately come from above, but Shino and Kakashi had enough time to initiate a Kawarimi Jutsu which allowed them to get into a safe haven just on top one of the buildings and also confusing the enemy nins with a replacement of logs and bugs.

However Kakashi then realizes the mistake they had just made. Surrounding them, every single one in a Chameleon Jutsu, were approximately fifteen nins.

Kakashi looks around and gets ready for a battle. _"If I didn't have the Sharingan, then this fight might have become a hopeless battle… I thank you again, Obito."_

Kakashi lunges forward, catching the nearest Stone nin off-guard, and immediately thrusts his heart, neck and right lung in quick succession. The Stone nins are surprised at the fact that Kakashi could see them, but then begin their assault.

Kakashi could see Shino releasing the Kikai bugs from his body, as he went toe-to-toe with the unseen enemies. _"Hah, he's probably using the bugs so he can see the whereabouts of the enemy nins."_

Kakashi clashes kunai with the Stone nin right in front of him, then throws the nin off balance while stabbing the other one beside him. A few shuriken are thrown right at him from nowhere but they are intercepted by a few shuriken coming from Shino.

"_Hmm, Shino's doing pretty well for his first assignment as an ANBU squad leader… I guess the ANBU was right in making him a part of their group."_

He watches as Shino, surrounded by a constant stream of bugs, clashes kunai with a stone nin lunging for his heart, while spreading the chakra eating Kikai bugs. Shino then forces the kunai into the floor, kicks the nin in the face and sends him flying towards a pair of nins coming straight at him.

"_He's improved a lot… in fact, all of the Rookie Nine have improved themselves beyond what we expected… they're all strong for their age…"_

Kakashi deflects a kick which was meant to sweep his legs and immediately throws a shuriken right at the kneecap, while throwing another right at the eye of the one right beside him. He then backfists a nin who tries to sneak up on him and kicks him in the stomach, and throws a kunai straight at his shoulder for good measure.

"_Damn it, these guys keep coming. What?!?"_

Kakashi suddenly sees a multitude of fists made of rock erupt from the ground, hitting him squarely on the face, and allowing a few kunai to hit him on the shoulder, leg, and back. Shino had also been hit by the same technique and was now just recovering from the surprise attack, with a few kunai sticking out of his arms and legs.

Kakashi found it hard to make hand seals in a battle like this because of the number of opponents. He could barely even count how many nins he was actually fighting, because these guys just wouldn't give up and stop attacking.

He could tell that Shino was also getting tired as well as he was getting hit by kicks and punches more often now, and his breathing was getting heavier. The Kikai bugs were eating away the opponents' chakra, but not in a fast enough pace to leave them weak and completely harmless.

Suddenly, the night seemed to have covered them all and the battlefield was wrapped in total darkness. It was a powerful genjutsu, but not powerful enough to block out the Sharingan's capacity to see the opponents' chakra waves. Kakashi took advantage of this unexpected development and starts towards Shino, wounding any ninjas in his way who couldn't move because they couldn't see anything.

Shino is partly startled as Kakashi takes his hand and leads him out of the genjutsu field. Outside, on the rooftop of the building opposite to them was Kurenai. She looked haggard, and had a few bloodstains and wounds where kunai and shuriken had been.

Kakashi immediately jumps onto the building Kurenai was on, just in time for her to release her genjutsu. He then forms a few hand seals. "**_Kirigakure no Jutsu!!"_**

A heavy mist suddenly forms, seemingly out of nowhere, and hides the top of the buildings around the block. While the mist grows heavier, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Shino make their escape.

Kakashi turns towards Kurenai. "Have you seen the others?"

From the expression from her face, Kakashi could see that she was clearly worried about the others.

"Don't worry, Kakashi-san," Shino replied in his usual voice, but he was now breathing heavily. "I can track them easily because of the female bug which I placed on them right after our talk with the daimyo."

Kurenai and Kakashi looked relieved at this development, but suddenly tense up as a small group of rain nins appear around them.

Kakashi gives off a slight laugh. "Heh, it looks like they still want to play."

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Hinata was breathing heavily as she deflected numerous kunai aimed at her and Kiba using her own kunai. The enemy was just playing with them now, waiting for them to drop their guard so that they could go in for the kill. Hinata could feel this, but would not give up, despite the fact that she was bleeding on both arms and on her right leg.

She looks at the ANBU lying a little way off, dead, and then shifts her attention to Kiba who was now just lying right beside her, unconscious. The rain nins had aimed their initial attack at the ANBU, killing him as he tried to protect both her and Kiba. Kiba then tried to protect her, but failed as he faced the powerful stone jounin who was standing behind the five rain nins attacking her.

"Just give up, little girl." The stone jounin sneers, and then laughs out loud. "If you give up right now, I'll make sure you experience a painless death."

Hinata shudders as she hears the word 'death'. She was trained as a ninja, and ninjas were taught not to fear death, but she was still scared nonetheless.

_I won't give up... and I never take back my words!!! That's my 'way of the ninja'!!!_

A small smile forms on Hinata's face as she remembers the voice of Naruto, a friend that she once had. She had always admired him, looked up to him, and even liked him… but because of that incident…

She calms herself down, and a fire of determination enters her eye. "N…Never!!! I will never… give up!!! I will protect my friends… even if I have to… to die trying!!!"

"Fine, I gave you a chance already, girl…" The stone jounin smiles evilly. "I'll make you wish you hadn't said that. I'll make your death slow… and very painful."

The five rain nins charge straight at her, holding kunai on both hands. Hinata readies herself for the attack and assumes the position for the **_Kaiten_**.

"_I need to be strong… I don't want to lose any of my friends… I will defeat them, and save Kiba!!!"_

And it took only an instant. As the rain nins came into range of the Kaiten, Hinata immediately begins releasing chakra while spinning. A tornado of chakra emerges from Hinata, protecting her and blowing away all five rain nins.

"_Neji nii-san… thank you…"_

She could still remember all those days Neji had trained with her. He had perfected even more techniques himself, but he would not keep them to himself. Instead, he would train with her once or twice a week, and then teach her some of the jutsus that he knew. She thought of Neji as both an older brother and a teacher. He had really changed… ever since Naruto defeated him during the tournament.

Hinata slows down her spinning and stops the chakra flowing out of her body. That technique still took a lot out of her, and she couldn't use it as often as Neji. But when she finally stops spinning and faces the stone jounin, she notices the jounin was already in the middle of doing his hand seals and using a jutsu.

Hinata's eyes widens as the jounin stops his hand seals, and initiates the jutsu. "**_Doton Doryuu Maguma Endan!!"_**

A dragon head suddenly appears right in front of the stone jounin and beathes out a flood of magma right at Hinata.

"_I don't have enough strength… to move… This is it… I-I…I'm about to die… right here… I-I'm sorry, Kiba… I can't save you…"_

Hinata slowly closes her eyes as she feels the magma come closer. The heat was intense, and she knew it would be a painful death, but she tried not think about it.

But the pain that she was expecting did not come. The heat suddenly died down, and the magma seem to have suddenly vanished all of a sudden. As she opens her eyes, she sees a tall man with long, blonde spiky hair with a small part of his hair tied behind his back. It seemed he had deleted the jutsu itself, and he was now facing the stone jounin with strange kunai in both of his hands. He was wearing a ninja vest, with a black, long-sleeved shirt underneath. His black cloak with red clouds designed all over were pulled down to his waist, and she couldn't help but feel awe for this newcomer.

The blonde suddenly speaks up without looking at her. "Hinata… are you alright?"

Hinata realizes from his voice that he was the same man she had gone out earlier. She blushes a little, but shrugs it off.

"B-be careful… Kou-san…"

Hinata smiles a little, but suddenly collapses due to sheer exhaustion. She sits up, and tries to stand but her weakened legs would not allow her to do so.

"Don't worry, Hinata… I won't let anything happen to you." The blonde then turns towards Hinata, and she realizes that he still had his ANBU mask on. "I promise you… I will protect you… and I never take back my words."

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Naruto smiles behind his mask. _"Hinata… That's my 'way of the ninja'."_

He focuses his eyes at the enemy, and analyzes him. The color of the vest and the Doton jutsu he just used made it clear to him that the enemy was a stone nin, probably around jounin level.

The stone nin suddenly sneers and laughs out loud. "So, you think you're all that, huh, blondie? Let's see what you can do."

The stone jounin suddenly begins another chain of hand seals, but Naruto had already thrown one of his kunai at him to interrupt the jutsu. The stone jounin realizes this and takes out his own kunai, deflecting the kunai to his right side.

Naruto smiles slyly. _"Time to die, bastard."_ He quickly performs a few hand seals. **_"Shunshin no Jutsu!!"_**

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Kakashi could not believe his eyes.

"_The blonde guy… the blonde guy just used the 4th's **Shunshin no Jutsu**!!! How can that be?!? Only the 4th knows the secret behind that time-space jutsu… how is that possible?!?"_

Kakashi, Kurenai, and Shino were watching atop a building as the blonde stranger suddenly disappears from his place right in front of Hinata and in a split second reappears right next to the stone jounin, instantly stabbing him in the side, the heart and on the back of the head so quickly that if they had not seen it with his own eyes, they wouldn't have believed it.

"Who is he???" Shino asks quietly. "I don't remember any of the ANBU's in Konoha having blonde hair, nor being that skilled."

"He's not from Konoha, Shino…" Kakashi answers quietly, looking at the red clouds on the blonde's cloak. "He's from the Akatsuki."

---------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto felt flesh as he struck the stone jounin quickly, killing him almost instantly. The stone nin was still able to say a few words, but he violently coughs out blood afterwards.

"_Konoha's Yellow Flash, huh? Is that what you were called back then, Yondaime-sama?"_

Naruto immediately runs back to Hinata, but Kakashi, Kurenai, and Shino suddenly block his path. He stops, and looks right at the team right in front of him.

"Will you be fighting me? I think it would be better if you Leaf nins just escaped, before even more rain or stone nins come," Naruto states coldly.

Koujiro suddenly appears right beside him. He didn't have his ANBU mask on, and he had his kunai out. "We do not want to fight. But if you wish to do so… then we will have no choice but to kill you, just as we killed those rain and stone nins."

Naruto suddenly notices that that there were no rain or stone nins around them. In fact, all he could see around him were the buildings and the dead rain and stone nins.

"_What the?!? Did Koujiro slaughter them all?"_

Kurenai suddenly steps up. "No, we don't want to fight. We're just here to take our comrades away. But the next time we see you criminals, we'll make sure we defeat you."

Naruto's heart was full of regret as he sees Hinata being taken away. His heart called out to Hinata, he wanted to run to her as she was led away and hug her, touch her, just be with her… but he suppressed the emotion. He knew that he didn't belong with them. Tears start to build up in his eyes, and he turns away.

"_I… I'm sorry, Hinata, but this is… good-bye."_

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Kakashi stares at the two men in front of him, but most especially at the guy who had his mask off.

"_No… it can't be… you..."_

The man turns his back on Kakashi, and starts walking away with his comrade. He stops a second later, and turns back to face Kakashi.

"Don't get in our way, Kakashi-san. I don't want to kill you. But if you get in my way…"

Kakashi looks on as both Akatsuki members make their way out of the village, and into the forests.

"_I see… so you're still alive. And you're a part of Akatsuki now... is this your revenge, Arashi Koujiro?_

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------_

It was an intense battle, and Naruto was starting to feel the effects of his fatigue. Bodies where everywhere, blood was spilled as if it were water, and the once lush landscape had been changed because of the level of destruction their jutsus had brought about.

Naruto was very tired, and for some reason he was desperate.

"_I need to kill them… before they kill me."_

He could feel all those eyes directed toward him, and every one of those eyes had hatred and anger in them.

Hatred and anger for him.

Because of what he was.

He immediately releases the chakra of the Kyuubi, melding it with his own. And he felt good. Smile crept up on his face, as a realization hit him.

He was supreme. He was invincible. He would change the world, and he would kill anyone who tried to stop him.

He immediately moves in a speed that his enemies could barely even see, slaughtering them one by one. All of them fall down one by one in bloody heaps, and he takes a look around. There was still one left.

"_Die… die!!!"_

Naruto moves with such speed that the person wasn't even able to move. He immediately stabs his kunai multiple times into the opponent, and kicks the person right on the face.

"_Ha… ha ha… hahahahahaha!!!! I am invincible!!! No one can defeat me now!!!"_

A wild light dances in his eyes, and he laughs out aloud.

"N-Naruto-kun… How… h-how could you??"

Naruto's momentous laugh immediately stops, and he faces the person he had just killed. There, in front of him, was the figure of Hinata, her beautiful features soiled with her own blood.

Naruto's eyes widen at the gruesome sight in front of him.

"No… n-no… it can't be… I…"

Hinata falls down in a pool of her blood, and Naruto could only look on as her blood steadily flowed out from her wounds, her eyes looking at Naruto with such fright.

"_Did I do this?!? B-but, I didn't recognize her… I was…"_

Naruto looks at the pool of Hinata's blood right as his feet. His features were not the same anymore. Naruto looks away in horror into what he had become.

He… was the Kyuubi.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Naruto opens his eyes suddenly, and sits up on his bed abruptly, looking around the room.

"_That's right… I'm back… I'm back… it was all a dream…"_

He puts his hand to face, feeling the whisker-like marks on his cheeks.

"_I'm still me… I'm still Naruto. I'm not the Kyuubi… I am Naruto. And I am with the Akatsuki. Yes, yes, that's right. And this is my new home…"_

He was back at the Village of the Dawn, the Hidden Village of the Akatsuki. It was still dark, but Naruto decides not to go back to sleep. It had been a week since he and Koujiro had finished their secret operation in the Hidden Village of Rain.

"That dream… that dream just keeps coming back. I… I… is that what I will become if I stay here? Will I eventually become a monster?"

Naruto stands and walks towards the balcony of his room. As he opens the balcony doors, a strong and cold wind enters his room and chilling him to the bone. Despite the cold, however, he continues onto the balcony and starts looking at the stars.

"Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Shino, Kiba, and… Hinata… it was good to be with you again. When I was around you guys, I actually felt like I was a Konoha ninja again… and I didn't want that to ever end. But…"

His hands could still remember the sins he had done a year ago, before he joined Akatsuki. He had unleashed it… he had unleashed the power of the Kyuubi at his own village.

He could still feel the hatred, anger, and loneliness that he felt back then. He had allowed the Kyuubi to take over his body, and the result… was utter devastation.

And yet, he watched on like he was watching a movie as the Kyuubi controlled his body and attacked everyone and everything in Konoha. He could hear the women's screams, the angry shouts of the ninjas, the cries of pain of those he had injured… yet he did nothing. His anger at those that had lied to him, that had deceived him, that hated him, made him so emotionless at that single moment that he simply didn't care if the Kyuubi destroyed everything.

He watched as he blindly attacked everyone, even Jiraiya, who chose not to defend himself. He saw his chakra imbued hand envelope his hand and created a Kyuubi claw which pierced right through Jiraiya's stomach. He then lifts the hermit above him, and throws him to the side like a doll.

But a realization hit him during that incident. What was he doing? Why was he doing this? It was like waking up to a dream. His intense emotions had blinded him, and he could only watch in horror as he finally saw the blood on his hands. He turned around and ran, ran through the forests of Konoha, and finally met up again with the Akatsuki member known as Arashi Koujiro, who had offered that he join Akatsuki. They were then attacked by a whole group of ANBU which Koujiro dispatched quickly. And he could still remember his words, those words that had moved him to join.

"_Uzumaki Naruto, you are special. And because you are special we need you. We need you to create that New Red Dawn for us. And with that red dawn, you will be able to create a world which doesn't have people that feel the way you felt, a world wherein everyone is accepted and no one will ever be neglected and abandoned. But with every new world, you need to make a sacrifice." _

"_A sacrifice?"_

"_Yes, you will need to leave this village, and from now on treat it as your enemy. The Akatsuki does not need any loyalties, nor does it need any ties with any village."_

"_That is a sacrifice? Hmph… I don't care about this village. From now on…"_

Naruto sighs and closes his eyes. He could feel the guilt in his heart, he could see Hinata's face in his mind, he felt very strongly towards her, and he wanted to escape from this reality and take Hinata away with him… but he pushes these things aside.

"From now on, they are my enemies."

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Glossary:

**_Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Skill)_**- a jutsu that utilizes the use of mist to hide the whereabouts of the user. Mainly used in assassinations.

**_Chameleon Jutsu_**-a special jutsu that is taught to the Hidden Village of Stone'sninjas when they reach chuunin level. It enables the user to completely blend their physical bodies with their surroundings. However, inexperienced users of this jutsu can only hide themselves physically; their chakra patterns can still be seen or sensed.

**_Kaiten _**- full name: **_Hakke Shou Kaiten(Heavenly Spin)_**: an advanced bloodline jutsu wherein an extremely large amount of chakra is expelled from the chakra holes of the body, thus causing the body to spin like a top. The attack is then deflected and the enemy is thrown away; exclusive to the Hyuugas.

**_Doton Doryuu Maguma Endan (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Magma Breath)_**-a high level jutsu which creates a dragon from the earth that sends a large amount of pressurized magma at the opponent. The enemy does not die immediately but will be burned and melted, allowing the opponent to feel the pain as he/she is burnedand melted alive.

**_Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Skill)_**- a secret jutsu used by the Fourth Hokage; it was also called his favorite jutsu, and that jutsu also gave him the name of "Konoha's Yellow Flash". All that is known of the jutsu is that it is a time-space jutsu which allows the user to move in between two points in an instant.

Author's Note: Well, I hope you liked this chapter. But I would actually understand if you people just find this chapter satisfactory, because I kinda rushed it(and I seem tobe experiencing writer's block).My exams are coming ever closer, andI'm getting more things to do (like reviewing and stuff) so I can't really focus on the story too much.I'll try to do better next time. Anyway, please review!!!


	8. Troublesome Situations

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Ok, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!!!

Normal - conversations/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

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Sasuke looks out from the top of cliff deep in the desert, north of the Hidden Sand Village. Orochimaru had started to initiate his plan, and was now allied with the ninja villages of Stone and Rain.

He strains his eyes a little bit, trying to see as far ahead as possible. The weather in the desert was very unpredictable and dangerous, and without ninjas who were trained specifically in this type of terrain, battles fought would be automatically advantageous to the Sand ninjas.

Orochimaru wanted his small army to lay a siege on the Hidden Village of Sand, the only known ally of Konoha for now. Each of the Seven Heavenly Notes had their own small armies, each one of them attacking the Hidden Village in all directions. They were also able to cut off Sand's information sources, trading sources, and scouts. So basically, the Sand nins were now surrounded by a large force, which grew by the day.

But Sasuke was still not impressed. Even after all these measure, the Hidden Village of Sand was somehow able to hold out for a week, with almost no casualties on their side, while the Sound's casualties seemed to increase everyday. He knew that this was partly because of the terrain advantage that the Sand nins possessed, but he knew that this was also because of the Hidden Village of Sand's living weapon.

And that weapon had a name, and was feared in the battlefield.

Gaara of the Desert.

----------------------------------------------------------

A black suited man looks down at the Sound nins his intercepting squad had just killed. The sound nins were not as strong as they looked, and because the sand nins knew this area well, those Sound nins didn't even know what was hitting them until it was too late.

"Kankurou-san, we've just received a message from the Village. The Kazekage wants us to come back at once."

Kankurou looks deep within the desert storms, and sees a figure atop a cliff. He smiles.

After growing up in the desert, visibility for him was absolutely no problem. He could already tell by the way the figure was standing that he was the commander of the squad. And by using one of his puppets which he had allowed to get closer, he could already tell that the person was, in fact, the bastard Uchiha Sasuke.

"_Hehe, I really want to kick your butt, Uchiha Sasuke, but unfortunately, I have much more important things to attend to."_

_----------------------------------------------------------------------_

Nara Shikamaru was busy waiting for Kankurou's arrival at the Kazekage's mansion. He knew that he shouldn't have accompanied Temari on her way back from Konoha a week and a half ago… he just knew that something troublesome was going to come out from it.

But his dad also told him that it was only courteous for a man to escort a woman back home, not matter how far 'home' was…

Shikamaru shudders as he remembers what he had to go through on the way back from Konoha. They were attacked by a bunch of Rain nin then, but… that wasn't exactly what made him shudder. What made him react like he did was what he saw Temari did to those poor Rain nin after she was done with them. She made Morino Ibiki look like a wimp with her type of torture. She was then able to extract the information from those nins about the upcoming siege, and that allowed them to alert the Sand Village.

"_Ugh, how troublesome…"_

Shikamaru tilts his head slightly to the left, and sees Temari's red-headed baby brother, standing there like a statue. He hadn't moved from that spot at all for ten minutes, and Shikamaru suddenly wondered how Gaara could do that without going crazy. The red-head wasn't even looking at anything interesting in particular… at least he, the infamous lazy genius, would look at the clouds, because they were interesting, and he could stare at them for hours at end without even moving. But this guy… this guy was just like a monument himself. In fact, Shikamaru could not even notice the guy breathe at all!

Shikamaru sighs, and let's out another mumbled "How troublesome…" He knew that escaping from the Sand Village was almost close to impossible now because of the presence of the Sound nins, so he was now actually forced to defend it together with the all the other Sand nins.

"Talk about bad luck… This is what I get for putting myself into these troublesome situations with women… especially if that woman happens to be a dominating tomboy with a knack for violence, death and destruction… I can't believe that I'm right in the middle of this…"

"Dominant… tomboy? With a knack for violence, death and destruction?" says Gaara in a quiet, almost amused voice.

Shikamaru was stunned. He didn't expect Gaara to actually hear what he had just mumbled to himself. And not only that. Gaara… Gaara actually tried to socialize with him?

Shikamaru immediately recovers from his stunned state, and replies in his lazy voice, "Yeah… you must know who I'm talking about, right?"

"My sister," Gaara states in a casual tone, without even looking at Shikamaru.

"Yeah… you're sister. No wonder you became like this. If I had an elder sister who constantly bully's me to do stuff that I don't even want to do, I'd probably become just like you," Shikamaru says in a joking manner.

A tiny smiles creeps up on Gaara's face.

"_Gaara… smiling? Now this… this is something that happens once in a blue moon."_

"Temari has always been that way. Maybe a little less towards me back then when she was still afraid of me… but now, she just treats me a 'little' better than all the others. I pity Kankurou… he actually becomes her main target when she gets angry, and so she vents out her anger on him."

Shikamaru shudders again. _"Temari is a dangerous woman… how the hell did I get mixed up with her anyway?"_

He suddenly remembers the time he had outsmarted her during the Chuunin Exam four years ago, and the time she saved him from the bitch Tayuya. Ever since then, she had continuously gone back and forth from Suna to Konoha, for some reason unknown to Shikamaru to this very day.

And when she visited, she would always: 1) challenge Shikamaru to a game of shougi, which she had always lost (to her extreme annoyance) 2) practice with Shikamaru (which was actually training, because she thought that he was a wimp) and 3) try cooking something (to Shikamaru's great annoyance, because she was a lousy cook).

All the ninjas in Konoha seemed to find it 'cute' that an older girl from a different village was actually going with the lazy bum known as Shikamaru, and the 5th actually approved of it. She said something to the lines of, 'It's going to improve the relations between Sand and the Leaf.' _Pfff… how troublesome._

He had also gotten closer to Kankurou, and to some degree, Gaara, because of their frequent visits to the village. Kankurou would usually hang out with Kiba and Chouji, while Gaara would usually stay with him or 'hang out' with Lee and Neji. But technically, it was really hanging out since they just talked about 'battle experience and missions' and they would almost always challenge each other to fights.

At first, he had thought that Temari would start hanging out with the other girls like Tenten, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata… which she did do, to a certain extent. But she just… liked to hang out with Shikamaru more often. She would even go with him to look at the clouds…

Shikamaru's thoughts were interrupted as Kankurou enters the palace, followed by Temari. It was clear that they had both come from battle, probably against some scouts. Shikamaru thought about the situation carefully. They were being attacked from all sides, and from what he had gathered, the leader of each squad was probably stronger thanan average jounin.

"So… report. Come on, you guys probably intercepted some scouts. From direction where they from? How many were sent? How strong were they?"

"The squad I had intercepted was from the north. We wiped out the whole scouting squad, and there were five of them. They were actually pretty weak, but that was mostly due to them not being accustomed to the terrain." Kankurou sounded bored. Shikamaru knew that he was a guy who wanted action, and sending him out on interception missions was not the type of mission Kankurou liked to do.

"The squad we dispatched was from the northeast. We also wiped out the whole squad, but there was just three of them. They basically got slaughtered." Temari was in her arrogant mood again today, and Shikamaru could tell from the way she spoke.

Shikamaru thinks awhile, trying to piece together all the information he had gotten so far.

"_We've been attacked in eight different directions already, but we survived because those armies had attacked one by one. If they attacked all together…we'd be crushed. __Now how the heck are we getting out of this one…"_

_-----------------------------------------------------------------------_

Kankurou looks on as he follows Shikamaru right into the Kazekage's room. Shikamaru was already a jounin, despite his age, but that was not the only that impressed him. He was also impressed by how Shikamaru handled his sister, Temari, who had a tendency to become violent. Somehow, someway, Shikamaru was able to tone down Temari's viciousness whenever he was around her, and she would actually listen to him. That was something she never did towards the nins in Sand.

The Kazekage welcomes them as they enter his simple room, furnished only with a table, a chair for the kage, and bookshelf to the left. On the table was a map of the village, with a great number of scribbles and illegible notes that Kankurou guessed was either the Kazekage's or Shikamaru's writing.

Ever since Shikamaru decided to help Sand, the Kazekage had always enlisted his help regarding tactics and strategy. In fact, if it wasn't for Shikamaru, they probably wouldn't have been able to last this long. The Sand nins had the terrain advantage, but the Sound nins had the advantage in numbers and in skill. The first wave which invaded the Sand would have brought them to their knees if Shikamaru had not created all those plans which enabled them to keep up with the Sound ninjas.

"So, what do you have for me, Shikamaru?" the Kazekage asks with confidence.

"All I have to say is, we're currently in a very troublesome situation right now. With all the information I've gathered, I can now tell that we're currently surrounded on all sides by Sound nins, and there is also the possibility that they have their allies with them."

"But we do have, Gaara, Shikamaru. This very terrain is his weapon, and he can take on a whole army by himself."

Shikamaru's eyes narrow a little. "And that's where you're wrong, Kazekage-sama. Gaara does not have the capability to protect this whole village, especially once they attack at the same time. The sand may be his weapon, but I have already seen and known of a variety of people who can defeat his Sand. If we place too much trust on Gaara's abilities, the enemy will know that all they need to do is kill or capture Gaara, then the village will be defenseless."

"I can take them on," Gaara states in a calm voice.

"No, you can't, Gaara. Do you remember Lee? He could get past your Sand. And do you remember Kimimaro? From what Lee told me, he would have killed you if he had not died right in the middle of his jutsu. What I'm trying saying is that we still don't know the capability of the squad leaders, and if they have curse seals, it will give them the strength to invade this village if they all use it at the same time."

Gaara's face didn't show any emotion at all, and he didn't respond to Shikamaru's explanation.

Shikamaru sighs, not even wanting to think of another plan. He had calculated everything, and each of his plans all led to their defeat. Orochimaru had really taken everything into consideration, and he looked like he was willing to sacrifice not having a good defending force at the Sound Village.

"_And none of the villages will attack Sound because they're all attacking each other right now. Orochimaru really took advantage of the situation, and decided to go all-out against the Hidden Leaf's only ally. If this happens, then Konoha will… I don't even want to think about that. But there is still one morecourse we can take…"_

Shikamaru knew that his last plan was his most desperate and most dangerous one. He looks at Gaara, and suddenly wishes that Naruto were here.

"Gaara… there's only one thing we can do. We need to attack the army to the east with a major force, enough to punch a hole right through their ranks. That would allow our Sand ninjas to get through and go to Konoha, asking for their aid."

"Are you stupid, you lazy ass? If we attack with a large force to the east, it will leave the opposite ends scarcely protected!! Even if the nins get to Konoha, once they get back, there might not be a Sand Village left standing!!" Temari was fuming, but Shikamaru decides to ignore her.

"That's why… that's why I would like Gaara to release the Shukaku, even for a while. The Shukaku is strong enough to defeat all the ninjas armies at the western end of the village, both to protect the village and to distract at least a fourth of the whole Sound force.

While the major force destroys the east Sound force, Gaara and a small amount of Sand nins will protect the opposite end of the village. In fact, Shukaku can protect approximately half of the whole village, mainly because the Sound nins will be drawn towards him."

Shikamaru knew that this was a gamble. If Gaara could not control Shukaku, the Sand Village would be destroyed even if they got help from Konoha. On the other hand, they didn't know how strong the eastern force of Sound was, and even with a big force of Sand nins, they wouldn't know if they could get through.

An uneasy silence filled the room. The plan was easily understandable, but the consequences still outweighed the benefits.

Gaara clears his throat. "Alright, I'll do it." He then walks out of the room without saying another word.

After a few more seconds of silence, the Kazekage decides to speak up. "And who will be the ones to alert Konoha of our predicament?"

"I'll do it." Temari sounded quite confident, although it looked like she was still a little doubtful of Shikamaru's plan.

The Kazekage smiles. "Shikamaru, go with her. I thank you for your help in our war, but we can't have you die in our village. You belong in the Hidden Leaf, and you should live and die in your own Village."

---------------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru walks in the streets of the Village of Sand, accompanied by Temari. It was getting dark, and he knew that he needed sleep.

_"We will execute the plan the day after tomorrow. We need to get help as soon as possible."_

A feeling of grief overwhelms Shikamaru. He didn't know how, or why, but he just felt guilty in leaving the Hidden Village of Sand. This village had become like his second home, mainly because of all those times he had come here escorting Temari. He would then usually stay a week or two before leaving.

"_I don't know why, but I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this operation. There are too many unknown factors, but this is for the best, I guess."_

Shikamaru looks to his left, where Temari was walking right beside him.

"_Is she alright? She hasn't said anything…"_

Temari looked different somehow. Shikamaru had never seen Temari so vulnerable, but he didn't know how to react whenever girls became like this, so he said nothing.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Shikamaru could not stand it any longer.

"Temari… I'm sorry. I know that the plan is way too risky, but…"

"Don't worry, Shikamaru, I'm alright." Tears were forming in her eyes, and Shikamaru hears her sobbing a little bit.

"That plan… is the only thing that can save my home. It's our best bet." She wipes the tears from her eyes and looks directly at Shikamaru. A smile forms on her face, and Shikamaru looked relieved to see Temari back to her usual self.

"I won't let my village down, Shikamaru. And you better not let your lazy ass become a burden in the mission. I'll be moving really quickly, you had better make sure that you don't fall behind."

A small smile forms on Shikamaru's face, and he lets a little laugh out. "Heh, don't worry, I won't let the Hidden Sand Village down. It's like my second home, after all."

--------------------------------------------------------

"So that is the snake bastard's plan…he he..."

An unknown member of Akatsuki wearing a straw hat looks at the Sound camps a little distance away.

An Akatsuki nin suddenly appears from the ground, moving out of it like it was water.

"Hmph, Orochimaru has started becoming a thorn in our plans. Not only does he have both the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Rain as his allies, he has also started spreading Sound's territory. He will have to be dealt with immediately…"

"Everything continues to go according to plan nonetheless. However, if any Hidden Village takes the advantage, we will have to do something about it."

"So are you saying we should help the Hidden Sand for now?"

"No, the battle seems even. All we need to do is watch, and make sure Orochimaru does not gain the upperhand in this war."

----------------------------------------------------------

The day had come.

Shikamaru comes out of the kage's mansion once again, followed by a few sand jounin. Temari was already waiting near the outskirts of the village where the operation would begin, while Gaara wasat the westernend of the village, ready to unleash Shukaku at the signal.

"_Ok… here we go. The troublesome gamble begins here."_

He immediately dashes to the eastern side of the village, while the sand jounin dispersed to assemble their fighting force.

He arrives at the outskirts of the village, and stands next to Temari. She smiles at him, and he smiles back.

"Heh, here we go. Don't become a burden, crybaby," Temari states jokingly.

The sand jounin arrive a few minutes later with their gathered force. Everyone stands at ready, as they await Shikamaru's command.

Shikamaru looks at the sun, and then shifts his attention to the shadows created by its brightness. He smiles.

"Let's do this."

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Author's Note: Well, I hope you enjoyed the brief ShikaXTema pairing, you'll be seeing more of that soon. I also hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!!!


	9. Blood and Battles I

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Sorry if my updates are getting kind of slow... I've been doing a lot of things in school, and I need to focus on that first. Thanks a lot to all those who gave me reviews, I'm constantly trying to improve the fic so far.It's just that my mind's kinda overloading at the moment because of the upcoming exams, and so, I can't seem to hold my ideas for this fic together. It'll be much better once I finish the exams, because then I would be able to concentrate more on this fic. Anyway, here's the new chapter. I hope you people like it. Enjoy!!!

Normal - conversations/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

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Koujiro shifts a little, partly because of impatience but also partly because of anxiety. He was always anxious when he was around Him, mainly because he knew that the truth would always come out, no matter how much one tried to hide it. And his was a secret that none of the Akatsuki should ever find out, not until it was time…

He looks at the tall man in front of him, also wearing the traditional black cloak with red clouds. The man had long, flowing silver hair which he tied behind his back, almost perfect skin and a skin color which seemed to enhance the beauty of his hair. His strange, mysterious yellowish eyes made his almost perfect features feel complete, and Koujiro guessed that the man probably had a ton of fangirls when he was a kid or in his teens.

The silver-haired man suddenly speaks out. "So, what has become of the war, Koujiro?"

"Everything seems to be going along as planned. It has been two months since the beginning of the war, and each Hidden Village has lost a certain amount of their village's net strength. If this keeps up, we can finally proceed to the next step…"

"And what of Orochimaru and his Hidden Village of Sound? He is the biggest threat to us because he knows our goals," interrupts the man.

"Orochimaru has allied himself with the Hidden Villages of Stone and Rain. You know that already. We're only waiting for Girochi to report the situation in Sound's recent siege on the Hidden Village of Sand."

"And what of the other villages?"

Koujiro was getting annoyed. The man just kept asking questions, although he was sure that the silver-haired man already knew the answers of his own questions.

"The Hidden Leaf is still allied with Sand, but cannot support the Sand because of the recent attacks of the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Grass, who are currently allied with one another. The Hidden Mist is trying to force the Hidden Waterfall to join them, but we still don't know if the Mist is really just trying to completely invade the Hidden Waterfall."

The silver-haired man looks directly at Koujiro's eyes, and for a second he felt that the man was going to kill him.

Koujiro tenses for a second, and prepares for an attack. A few seconds go by… but nothing happens. The man's yellow eyes were very uncomfortable, and Koujiro tries to look away.

" 'It' is not yet complete. As long as the key seals have not yet been gathered, 'it' cannot be used."

The silver-haired man frowns and his voice grew colder than it originally was. "Do we not have everything? What more do we need? We have the Fourth's secret Scroll of Sealing, and we have gathered all the scrolls of all the villages that are related to our goal. And yet, it is still incomplete?"

"There is still the Hidden Village of Moon, which is in the Tea Country, and there is still the Hidden Village of Ice, in the Snow Country. We still have not…"

"Are you just trying to prolong the achievement of our goal, Koujiro? I know that you are one of the strongest in Akatsuki, but if I feel that you are betraying us, I will not hesitate to kill you." The man's eyes were blazing, and Koujiro suddenly felt a slight tinge of fear in himself.

The man closes his eyes, and Koujiro relaxes his body. A sigh of relief escapes from Koujiro, and he suddenly wonders how long he could keep up the charade.

The man continues speaking, but this time a little bit calmer. "If what you say is true, Koujiro, then the Fourth has done more than I expected." The silver-haired man smiles. "However, I wouldn't expect anything less from him anyway."

"So what should we do? Should I take Naruto so we can steal the scroll of one of the remaining villages?"

The man's eyes narrow a little. "Are you completely sure that Naruto cannot draw the full power of the Kyuubi right now?"

Koujiro nods. "The Fourth did not only use the **_Shiki Fuuin_** to seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto. He also placed a double seal which prevents any outside force from unsealing the Kyuubi or extracting its chakra; it also prevents the demon fox from escaping from Naruto. The two elephant seals give Naruto the capability to draw chakra from Kyuubi, and it also prohibits the demon fox from fully possessing Naruto, no matter what emotion he feels.

Yes, although the Kyuubi can possess him, it cannot completely do so. It can only possess him for a short amount of time, and as long as this is the case, we cannot use it as a weapon. And the only way Naruto can achieve the full power of the Kyuubi is when it has completely possessed him, thus resulting in complete loss of Naruto's consciousness."

The silver-haired man contemplates a bit. "And, as I remember from what you said, if we gather all the scrolls of sealing of all the ninja villages, we can unlock the Kyuubi forcefully? How will we control Naruto when he goes berserk?"

Koujiro's eyes suddenly twinkle. "That's why I'm here."

--------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke looks at the great dust clouds forming to the south of his position. He could barely see what was happening, but he knew a battle was raging on.

"Squad, to the alert! We will help our comrades at the eastern area of the Sand Village!"

No one replies to his shouting, and Sasuke suddenly gets annoyed.

"_What the hell?!?! Where is everyone?!? They can't be all sleeping…"_

"I'm afraid that you won't be helping anybody, Uchiha Sasuke… hehehe. And neither will your dead troops."

A figure suddenly appears behind him, wearing the familiar black cloak with red clouds sewn on it. Akatsuki.

Sasuke activates the Sharingan and prepares himself for battle. He could barely see the face of his opponent because of dust-filled winds of the terrain.

He then unsheathes his katana, and charges right at the Akatsuki member at high speed. The Akatsuki nin seemed to be surprised at Sasuke's speed and was barely able to dodge as Sasuke attempted to cut the enemy's head off at the first slash. Instead, the straw hat that Akatsuki nin was wearing is instantly cut in half, and Sasuke finally sees the man's face.

"You…!!!!"

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, I didn't want you to recognize me until I placed you at the brink of death, but I never really expected you to become this strong."

"You traitor… you were a spy all along… Kuroro…"

Kuroro's pasty face and evil smile could easily be distinguished despite the dust storm which surrounded them. The curse seal which was normally seen at the base of his neck was nowhere to be seen.

"Sasuke-kun, it was fun to have known you, but I believe that I will have to kill you now. He he he…"

Sasuke prepares himself again as Kuroro attacks with full force. His katana strikes steel as he blocks and strikes Kuroro who was using a small blade. Every strike, every move, every block was so precise that even Kuroro was impressed by how much Sasuke had improved.

After a few minutes of clashing they separate but Kuroro was clearly breathing heavily while Sasuke didn't looked tired at all.

Sasuke smiles. "Hmph, before I kill you, I just want to know one thing: how did you remove your curse seal?"

"He he he… why Sasuke-kun, don't tell me you're actually thinking of going back to Konoha. What about your brother, then?"

"I will kill Itachi in my own way, and I don't need the curse seal to do it. And I have no intention whatsoever of going back to the Leaf. Now, just tell me how you did it before I kill you." Sasuke's voice was as cold as his eyes.

"Ha ha ha… no need to be so cold, Sasuke-kun. It doesn't matter if you do kill me. My death is not enough proof that you can defeat Itachi." He smiles.

"I am not even fit to be called an Akatsuki nin right now, after all. I am weak, and defeating does not mean you are just as strong as your brother."

Sasuke moves in a blink of an eye, and Kuroro's eyes widen as he discovers that he was about to die. A few seconds later, a fountain of blood erupts from Kuroro's body. His lifeless body falls to the ground, and the flowing blood creates a pool around him. Sasuke looks at the dead body for the last time, and then starts walking towards the battle.

"_This curse seal… I have no need of it anymore. All that remains is… to kill Him. The snake bastard has done his purpose of training me to this level. Once Itachi is dead, Orochimaru is next. And then, my purpose is complete."_

_-----------------------------------------------------------------_

Shikamaru deflects a kunai coming his way while dodging the countless shuriken which were thrown by the enemy.

"_Damn, there were more Sound nins than I thought. Getting through will not be easy…"_

"**_Kamaitachi no jutsu!!"_**

Shikamaru glances to his right side and sees Temari blowing away tons of Sound nin as she tries to clear a path out of the battlefield.

"_Punching a hole may be impossible… but at least with the cover of this large battle, we actually have a chance to sneak out… but Temari should stop using her fan, it makes her too conspicuous…how troublesome…"_

Shikamaru nimbly dodges the various jutsus and shuriken which appear from nowhere, and reaches Temari. He touches her shoulder, but she suddenly draws a kunai and puts it right at his throat. Shikamaru's face whitens and sweat suddenly rolls down his face.

"Wait, T-Temari!! It's me, Shikamaru!"

Temari looked skeptical, and didn't move the kunai away. "Prove it."

"Prove something so stupid at a troublesome time like this? Or maybe you're just looking for another reason to verbally abuse me again."

Temari smiles. "Sorry, Shikamaru. But this is war, and basically any ninja can become your enemy."

"_Yeah, she's absolutely right… I wonder why she trusts me so easily? My answer wasn't exactly very revealing…"_

Shikamaru shakes his head. _"No time to daydream. It's time to act."_

"Temari, let's go. This heated battle is enough cover for us to move towards Konoha."

Temari silently nods, and they both rush towards the ends of the battlefield.

"_We're almost there. It seems that they haven't noticed our presence. That's good."_

"Shikamaru, get down!!" Temari shouts.

Shikamaru ducked just in time for a huge shuriken to appear from the dust storms, which nearly decapitates him.

"Thanks, Temari."

But he notices that Temari was not listening to him; instead, she was looking straight at the dust storm in front of them.

"Damn," she suddenly says. "There are other ninjas beyond here. It seems that Orochimaru didn't want any Sand nin to escape the village."

Shikamaru mutters another "How troublesome" and looks up at the sky.

"It's noon. Perfect." He smiles.

"Temari, blow away the dust storm and then float right above them. I have a plan."

Temari looks at him witha blankexpression on her face.

He looks back quizzically. "Please?"

Temari grins and stands up. "I trust you, Shikamaru."

She then swings her fan. "**_Chou Kamaitachi no Jutsu!!"_**

An extremely powerful gust of wind utterly clears the once powerful dust storm and the nins that were hiding behind it were either blown away and cut up or were thrown back a little.

Temari then swings her fan once again, but instead of creating gusts of wind, she suddenly disappears from sight.

"_Heh, it's Temari's Tsuchigakure no Mai. What a crafty tomboy."_

The enemy nins were just starting to recover themselves when a large shadow suddenly forms from above. Looking upwards, they see a large fan hovering over them.

Shikamaru then does a few hand seals. "**_HiJutsu Eien Kage Numa!!_**"

He extends his shadow to reach the area under the nins which was created by the shadow of the fan. The enemy nins were suddenly grabbed by shadow-like tentacles and were slowly sunk into the earth.

Temari follows up Shikamaru's jutsu with her own. "**_Fuuton Kuuki Suratsushi Wa!!"_**

A stream of extremely sharp winds attack the immobile enemy nins who are then cut up into pieces.

Shikamaru shudders. "_What an extremely violent woman… she actually cut them up like they were vegetables."_

Temari lands right next to Shikamaru and gives him a sweet smile.

"You never told me you had created such a technique before. You surprise me, lazy ass."

Shikamaru merely grins back, and begins running towards the direction of Konoha.

"Hehe, let's go and finish this mission, Temari."

----------------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru and Temari enter the borders of the Fire Country, and continue to move as quickly as possible through the forests and towards the Hidden Village of the Leaf. They had quite a hard time, having to go through a few parties of Rain nins and Stone nins who were scattered all over the border between the Fire and Wind Country.

Both of them were breathing heavily because of exhaustion. Temari looks upward, and notices the quick passage of time.

"Damn it, we won't reach Konoha until around night-time. Those fights have taken quite their toll on our stamina, and if we can't afford to get into another one if we want to get to Konoha at the expected time…"

A kunai suddenly appears from the left aimed directly at Temari, but Shikamaru pushes her out of the way and gets hit right on the shoulder. A few more shuriken follow the kunai, Temari immediately shields Shikamaru using her fan.

"I finally caught up. It took some time, but I can't allow you to get back to the Leaf. It seems that you're in a very troublesome situation, eh, Nara Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru looks at the figure standing atop the tree, and immediately recognizes the black hair, the crimson Sharingan eyes, that arrogant voice.

Uchiha Sasuke.

"Ugh, how troublesome, having to fight against a former Leaf," Shikamaru states. He unsheathes a small blade, and prepares to fight. "But I guess it can't be helped."

Sasuke suddenly disappears from the tree. Shikamaru could barely see Sasuke's movements, but Temari had already performed her hand seals.

"**_Fuuton Kaze no Tate!!_**"

Sasuke's Sharingan had already seen the jutsu coming but the downward momentum from his speed did not allow him much room to dodge the gushing winds of the shield. He slams right into the shield, and dodges two kunai Shikamaru suddenly throws right at him.

Shikamaru suddenly charges right at Sasuke and tries slashing him using his small blade but with Sasuke easily dodges the slashes and immediately jumps atop another tree.

"_Darn, Sasuke's speed and agility have greatly increased since the last time I saw him. And with the Sharingan, hitting him physically makes it almost impossible to hit him…"_

He suddenly sees Temari appear atop the tree which Sasuke was headed. He throws a kunai right at the Uchiha.

Sasuke suddenly notices Temari behind him and dodges her initial strike using her fan. He then dodges the kunai from Shikamaru and catches its handle. He then turns and kicks Temari right at the stomach, sending her towards the trunk of another tree, followed by a well-aimed kunai right through her stomach.

"I've had enough playing around."

Sasuke performs a few hand seals.

Shikamaru's eyes widen. _"Darn, the tiger seal!!"_

"**_Katon Goukakyuu no jutsu!!"_**

Sasuke aims the jutsu right at Shikamaru and incinerates him, as well as the whole area underneath.

"Sorry, Shikamaru… I…"

Sasuke suddenly realizes that he could not move.

"_What?!?"_

"Heh, you got caught in my trap. I know that I can't defeat you in head-on combat, Sasuke, thus I had to take away your mobility."

Sasuke strains his eyes towards his feet, and notices an extension of his shadow sticking out to the direction of Shikamaru's voice.

Shikamaru steps out behind the tree, and Sasuke notices that his body was moving in the exact same way Shikamaru was moving.

"I really don't want to kill a former Leaf, but now that it's come to this, I guess I have no other choice…"

Shikamaru eyes suddenly widen in surprise as he senses Sasuke's sudden chakra burst.

"His chakra… it's too strong… darn, it's pushing back my shadow…"

Shikamaru could only watch as Sasuke uses his chakra to push back the shadow, jump out of his position, and throw a multitude of kunai.

"I'm not done yet!!" shouts Sasuke. "**_Kunai Bunshin no jutsu!!_**"

Shikamaru jumps out of the way of the kunai as the jutsu creates illusions of even more kunai, thus hiding the identity of the original ones.

"I got you, Shikamaru."

Sasuke suddenly appears right behind a stunned Shikamaru and stabs him. However, the stabbed Shikamaru suddenly transforms into a log with an explosive tag on it.

"Shit!!!"

The explosion rocks the whole area, and Sasuke, who is barely able to dodge the explosion, is thrown against another tree.

"**_Ninpou Rai Ryuu Ken!!_**" Sasuke stabs his sword into the ground. Electric pulses race from his body to the earth and Sasuke performs another hand seal. "**_Kai!!_**" He then slashes the sword upward and an electric pulse in the form of a dragon is formed by the slash, which then charges towards Shikamaru's position.

However, two figures in cloaks suddenly appear right in front of the lightning dragon, and delete the technique.

"Who the hell are you?!?" shouts an enraged Sasuke.

"Justice."

----------------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru looks back a little after finding Temari. Sasuke seemed to have given up trying to find them, but he couldn't really tell from all the damage they done to the forest.

He looks at Temari's limp figure, and touches her face.

"I'm sorry… a man is supposed to protect a woman…that's what dad said…"

Shikamaru carries Temari on his back and begins his trek towards the village of Konoha.

"_Damn it… if something serious happens to her... I.. I don't want to go through what I did during my first mission as a chuunin… I need to hurry…"_

_-----------------------------------------------------------------------_

Naruto yawned. He hated having to just stand in one corner, away from all the action.

"_Ugh… why did she have to do all the fighting…"_

Naruto looks at the black-haired youth currently fighting his comrade. He knew that young man and couldn't help but remember what they had gone through.

"_Sasuke… I would have preferred it if I didn't fight you as an enemy, but as a friend… but we took our own paths, and now…"_

Sasuke suddenly feigns a slash. Naruto's comrade goes for the feign and misses Sasuke completely, giving him the opportunity to cut the straw hat in half and cut the enemy near the stomach and on the right shoulder.

Sasuke then stares straight at him. "You, come over here, I'm not afraid. I'll kill every one of you."

Naruto lets out a little laugh. Sasuke's expression changes to that of anger, and begins toward Naruto, but he is stopped by the voice of his opponent.

"Where are you going, Uchiha Sasuke? Our fight isn't over."

Naruto looks at his comrade, and smiles. She was a part of Akatsuki, but, like him, she was a part of their special force. She was quite beautiful, with her brown, short, shoulder-length hair, green eyes, and cute smile. She wasn't as thin as most girls he knew, and she was quite reserved, but not as much as Hinata.

Naruto liked her, though he knew that his liking for her was not as much as with his liking for Hinata. The Akatsuki girl knew how to make him laugh, she was incredibly open, she made a good training partner, but most of all, she could understand him. Why?

Because she had a youma inside her as well.

Just like him.

Naruto watches as blood flows from the open wounds on her body. Sasuke smiles arrogantly towards her, and laughs out loud.

"Little lady, I think it would be better if you just give up. It'll be easier for both of us."

The girl smiles. "This is my big chance to impress my partner over there, so I won't screw this battle up. Prepare yourself, Uchiha Sasuke, because I, Uruha Asuka, am here."

Naruto watches on with anticipation and grins. It was time for the Bloody Rose to blossom.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glossary:

**_Shiki Fuuin_** - a sealing jutsu wherein the soul of the target is sealed within the body of the user to be devoured by Shinigami, the death God. However, in return for summoning him, the user will also have to offer his/her own soul to the Shinigami as well. Thus, the souls of both the enemy and user will be in eternal combat in the stomach of the death God.

**_Kamaitachi no Jutsu_** **_(Wind Sickle Skill)_** - a jutsu that requires a medium for the wind to be used; the wind is strong enough to extinguish flames and are as sharp as sickles.

**_Chou Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Mega Wind Sickle Skill) _**- a much more powerful version of Kamaitachi no Jutsu. The winds are strong enough to level a portion of a forest or clear any abnormal weather pattern in the terrain (like dust storms, snow storms, etc.)

**_HiJutsu Eien Kage Numa (Secret Technique: Swamp of Eternal Shadow)_** - one of the secret techniques passed down in the Nara clan; the user extends his shadow under the target and creates a living swamp made of shadows which slowly engulfs the opponent. Any enemy which is completely engulfed by the swamp is crushed into bits and is drained by the user of all his/her chakra.

**_Tsuchigakure no Mai (Dance of the Hidden Moon)_** - a taijutsu skill which allows the user to distort the light waves around him/her, allowing him/her to "disappear". Mainly used in surprise attacks or assassinations.

**_Fuuton Kuuki Suratsushi Wa (Wind Release: Air Slash)_** - a jutsu wherein the wind is turned into extremely sharp blades; one drawback is that the winds will always move in a straight line, making it easy to dodge.

**_Fuuton Kaze no Tate (Wind Release: Shield of Wind)_** - a sphere of wind that protects the user/user's group from harm. however, it draws a lot of chakra especially if the shield is being constantly attacked.

**_Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball Skill)_** - the user expels a huge fireball from his/her mouth, burning a large area.

**_Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu_** - a jutsu which creates replications of the original kunai thrown; however, these replications are just illusions and cannot really hurt the target.

**_Ninpou Rai Ryuu Ken_** **_(Ninja Art: Thunder Dragon Sword)_** - a special jutsu that gathers a huge amount of chakra into the sword and gives it a form with a special intention in mind; in this case, the form it is given is of a dragon. However, if the jutsu is not released in time, it will backfire on its user.

**_Kai_** - a means of concentration to be able to expel a genjutsu; this type of concentration also enables the release of different jutsus like the Rai Ryuu Ken.

Author's Note: Well, that's it!!! I hope you people enjoyed this chapter!!! Please review!!!


	10. Blood and Battles II

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Ahahaha, here I am again, with the new chapter!!! Sorry for the wait, I've been quite busy lately. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews once again!!! It really drives me to write better!!!

Normal - conversations/narrations

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

Donut-Nin hehe, don't worry, Naruto and Hinata will still be getting together.  
Joel thanks a lot!!!  
Gopu i'm doing my best  
hopefullight sorry i can't update as often, but don't worry, i won't be leaving this fic hanging  
plur koujiro has his reasons... hehehe  
joekool yes, the girl has a youma, but i can't reveal just what it is just yet  
sirius thanks for reviewing (yet again!!!) it really helps me write when i see people actually review because at least i know people are actually reading this!!  
Chocobaby well, that's how i picture shika and temari's relationship ) thanks for reviewing!!  
Zsych thanks a lot for your review!! you made me think a little deeper about my fic, and i really thank you!!! i'm trying to work on sasuke not being too dependent on the curse seal, plus he doesn't want oro to control his life, thus he wants to remove it.  
liliath thanks for reviewing again!!! hope you're ok now!!!  
MystikD109 thanks, i'll try my best to create a really interesting story here!  
En Satsu Koku Ryuu Ha i'll try to devote more chapters on naruto, i'm just trying to develop the other characters while trying to develop the situation at the same time.  
Shido woops, sorry for the typos and spacing problems. i'll try to fix them.

Sorry, if i didn't respond anytime sooner, or if don't respond to the others, but rest assured that i've read every review you people have given me. Thanks for everything!!! Anyway, on with the show!!!

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Kankurou looks up at the huge mound of sand right beside the village, and tries to subdue fear within himself.

"_Gaara… Gaara's been in Shukaku form too long!!! This isn't good… So far, he hasn't attacked the village, but for how much longer can Gaara hold out the full Shukaku possession?"_

The Shukaku spews an enormous amount of sand right into the middle of the Sound nins army and after the avalanche of sand, nothing remained of the whole army.

"_This is the second Sound ninja army he's completely obliterated… it looks good so far. He could very well take on the whole army by himself. The Shukaku is just too powerful… but I guess it is a youma, after all."_

All of a sudden, two figures appear right on top of the sand avalanche. Kankurou couldn't make out the pair's features mainly because of the cloth which covered their face and the long robes which they wore. One of the figures suddenly draws blood from his thumb and spreads it onto the arm. The figure then does a few hand seals and a huge snake suddenly appears.

"_Who the hell?!?!"_

The snake successfully wraps itself around Shukaku and tries to squeeze it, but it merely disintegrates into a pile of sand. The land underneath the snake then turns into a whirlpool which sucks the giant snake down and crushes it.

The two figures on top of the snake then perform a few hand seals and the snake suddenly turns into a chain made up of chakra with symbols of different seals which binds the Shukaku then pulls the it out from the sand.

"_That chain… it's preventing the Shukaku from using it's sand properties!!! Shit!!! Gaara's a sitting duck out there!!!"_

Kankurou runs towards the direction of where the two figures landed, bringing his Karasu and Kuro-ari with him.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Everything is fine now. The youma cannot move as long as that chain is around him, and it cannot transform back to Gaara unless Gaara awakens himself or someone awakens him. He's as good as yours… Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru takes off his mask and moves toward the now helpless Gaara.

"Very good, Kabuto. Thisexperimental kinjutsu… it actually has the power to stop a youma. Ku ku ku…"

"Orochimaru-sama, you should possess it quickly… I don't know how long the Youma Fuuin can seal off the youma's power…" Kabuto worries out loud.

"Ku ku ku… My new body is now ready. It doesn't matter now if they have the Kyuubi, with my knowledge and jutsus and the Shukaku's raw power, I will be impossible to defeat!!!"

Kabuto suddenly spots a figure moving towards them.

"I'll take care of the small fry, Orochimaru-sama. Please take Gaara's body as soon as possible. It's too risky… he might revive."

Kabuto then moves toward the figure and disappears behind the sand storm.

"Ku ku ku… it's time."

"You've always been impatient, Orochimaru. Isn't that the reason why you left us?"

Orochimaru's eyes widen as a figure appears from underground right in front him. The tall, venus flytrap-like collar opens and reveals the hard and weird face of a nin he knew from long ago.

Orochimaru's surprise changes to a grin. "Ah, Girochi, so nice to see you… how is Akatsuki?"

Girochi grins as well. "You haven't changed a bit… you still look as pasty and as snake-like as I remember."

Large stone roots suddenly appear from underground and attempt to strike Orochimaru, who easily dodges the attack.

"Ku ku ku ku ku… what a greeting. You haven't changed as well, Girochi. Still trying to defeat your opponents by hitting them where they least expect it?" Orochimaru laughs out loud.

Girochi laughs with Orochimaru. "He he, the Akatsuki is doing fine, Orochimaru. You shouldn't have left. Once we're through, we will be the new lords of the land. Everyone and everything will bow down to us, and will reign supreme!!"

"Hmph, I would rather live forever and be the most powerful ninja in the whole world… your bodies can be destroyed, but with my immortality jutsu, I can never be defeated!!!"

Orochimaru opens his mouth and a snake appears with the a hilt of a sword in the snake's mouth. Orochimaru draws the sword, and prepares to attack.

Girochi watches with slight disinterest. "You have always been disgusting, you snake bastard. You merely used us so you could learn our jutsus… I still can't believe that 'he' actually accepted a weirdo like you."

Orochimaru suddenly disappears before a disinterested Girochi, who looks upwards and raises his hand. Suddenly, tentacle-like roots shoot out of the sleeve of his shirt and into the sand storm. After a few seconds, the roots pull down and slam an enraged Orochimaru onto the ground.

"Hmph, don't think I'm such a fool, Orochimaru. I know what you want…" Girochi looks at the Shukaku. "Of course we won't let you get it… Gaara is also precious to us, you know."

Orochimaru's eyes widen in surprise. "So… you're not here stop me, eh? You're here to take Gaara of the Desert away as well… hmmm, why then, didn't you do so earlier then?"

"Gaara is not like any of the other three youma-bearing people… he was heavily protected, especially when his father was still Kazekage. You do know that we do not like to make our presence known, and we hate having to go through unnecessary fights. Besides, we still needed to find the remaining two youma-bearing people back then, and now that we have all three, all we need is Gaara."

Orochimaru smiles. "I see… and so you started the Sand siege by giving the Hidden Stone Village information regarding the decrease of Sand nins, prompting them to call us to help them assault the Hidden Village of Sand…you knew that they would use Gaara of the Desert, thus making him vulnerable… however…"

Orochimaru's body suddenly tears open and a multitude of snakes come rushing out.

"Damn!!! A **_Hito no Kawarimi_**!!!!

Girochi performs his hand seals. **_"Katon Housenka!!"_** He then spits out a multitude of fireballs which burn the snakes.

"However!!" shouts Orochimaru, and Girochi looks at the top of Shukaku only to find the snake bastard standing right next to Gaara.

"You will never get Gaara of the Desert, because he is now mine!!!"

Girochi jumps towards Orochimaru but he was too late. Orochimaru had already transferred his mind to the sleeping Gaara. The chain of chakra disappears, and sand spews up from the ground, grabs Girochi from mid-air and throws him down.

Gaara, who was now possessed by Orochimaru, opens his eyes.

"Ku ku ku ku ku!!! I can feel it!!! The strength of the desert is mine to conrol!!! The raw power of the Shukaku is now…"

Orochimaru suddenly clutches his head, as if he was having a massive headache. "Ugh!!! Gaara's consciousness… Shukaku's mind… it's too much… Kabuto… Kabuto!!!"

The large mound of sand dissolves and Orochimaru falls down helplessly. Kabuto appears out of nowhere and catches him.

"Orochimaru-sama, it seems that it was a success, but you need more rest before you can fully control Gaara's body. We need to retreat."

Girochi appears right behind Kabuto and attempts to attack him but Orochimaru creates a sand barrier which blocks Girochi's attack and engulfs him.

"Let's go, Kabuto, our mission here is done. Tell our troops to head back, before the Akatsuki decides to invade our Hidden Village."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

--------------------------------------------------------

Kankurou looks helplessly as Kabuto carries off the body of his brother, which now housed Orochimaru's soul.

"_Damn it!!! They have Gaara… I need to alert the village… they need to retrieve him and send Orochimaru's soul out…"_

Kankurou tries to move, but his body would not respond.

"_That shit Kabuto… he had to disable the nerve endings of my body just so I couldn't move my puppets… I wonder, what's going to happen now?!?"_

_---------------------------------------------------------------------_

Naruto starts biting his lip as he watches the ongoing fight between Sasuke and Asuka.

"_What's she doing? She's going a little bit too far, isn't she?"_

Naruto winces a little as he sees Asuka get slashed right at the shoulder by Sasuke's katana, then kicked right at a tree.

"You're not a very good fighter, are you, Uruha Asuka?" Sasuke jokingly states with a smirk on his face.

"And you're not much of a killer, are you, Uchiha Sasuke? If you were truly a killer-type of person, you wouldn't have let me live this long… In fact, if you were a killer, you wouldn't have those two escape you earlier. Killers such as ourselves aren't meant to have emotional attachments, and yet it seemed to me that you were holding back during your fight with those two," Asuka states with a smile.

Sasuke winces a little as the words hit him hard.

"_She's right… I could have killed Shikamaru and Temari, and yet something inside me didn't want to do it… something inside me held me back…"_

Asuka lets out a little laugh. "You look stunned, Sasuke. Maybe I was right on my assumptions?"

"Shut up, you idiot… look at you, you laugh at me as if I'm the one losing the match. But in fact, you haven't even touched me the entire time we were fighting, and I've basically cut you up so many times you're losing tons of blood as we speak."

"And who says this isn't part of my plan, Uchiha Sasuke? I fight in my own way… and from what you showed me in our fight, I can say that you're no match for me."

Sasuke's eyes narrow as he assumes a fighting position and charges right at Asuka. The Akatsuki girl merely readies her kunai and cuts her herself on the palm, allowing the blood to flow on the kunai. She dodges Sasuke's first slash and attempts a feeble slash directed right at Sasuke's head, which he dodges perfectly, countering with a kick right at Asuka's chin, launching her straight toward another tree.

Suddenly, Sasuke feels stinging pain coming from his leg, and realizes that the girl had cut him before she flew backwards.

Naruto decides to move and quickly runs toward Asuka, catching her before she slams right onto a tree trunk.

"What the heck are you doing, Asuka? If he hits you fatally, there's absolutely no way you can recover from that," Naruto whispers to her with genuine concern.

"Haha, don't worry about me too much, Naruto. I know what I'm doing."

Naruto gently places her on the ground and looks at Sasuke, who was looking straight at them.

"Hey, Akatsuki bastard, come here and fight me!!! Don't tell me you'll be using that girl as some sort of shield… Get your ass here right now so I can kill you too!!!" Sasuke shouts.

Asuka lightly touches Naruto's face. "Don't worry about me, Naruto, I can take care of myself." She smiles at him, and starts moving towards Sasuke.

"Well, Uchiha, I've got to hand it to you, you are a good fighter." Asuka lets the top half of her Akatsuki robe fall to reveal a small hanging sleeveless shirt with a ninja vest underneath.

"It's been fun fighting with you, but I guess that today's just your unlucky day. It's actually to my advantage that you have a bloodline, you know."

Sasuke was puzzled. _"She's at an advantage because I have my Sharingan activated? Is she mad?"_

"You see, Uchiha, all bloodlines in this world weren't just inherent in a family; they were implanted. Techniques like your Sharingan didn't initially come from a person's blood; they were jutsus back then which were passed down from family to family. The Byakugan, from which your Sharingan sprouted from, was initially a family jutsu."

Asuka cuts her arms using her kunai, and blood starts flowing freely from the wound. "These techniques, known as bloodlines, all sprouted from one advanced bloodline: mine."

Sasuke watched in shocked amazement as the blood which flowed freely throughout her whole body was now retreating back to their respective wounds.

"You see, Uchiha Sasuke, my clan can manipulate our blood in any way we choose. Once in our past, we had the ability to imbue our blood with jutsus, therefore creating the first 'Bloodlines.'

"However, many people hunted us down for our unique ability, mainly because they wanted to learn the secret of our abilities. We were hunted down like animals, and certain families like the Hyuuga were capable of capturing us; they then proceeded to experiment with our unique blood so that instead of passing on a family technique, it would manifest itself on its own by use of blood.

"The families who were successful at doing so imbued the different jutsus into the genes of our blood, and transplanted that blood into themselves and members of their families. With time, my clan's blood mixed with their blood, thus giving them these unique abilities.

"Over time, my clan lost the ability of absorbing jutsus into the blood; and when this happened, many more clans in the land who wanted to create bloodlines of their own were angered. They killed many of us, and only a few were able to survive. Half of those who did survive were killed by those who had the bloodlines in fear that someday, that ability could manifest itself once again. In other words, our clan was almost completely wiped out."

Asuka smiles. She closes her eyes for a few seconds, and opens them.

Sasuke stares at disbelief. _"That's impossible. That… that just can't be."_

Her eyes were crimson, and it had three tomoes on them.

It was the Sharingan.

"My bloodline, being the Mother of all bloodlines, can absorb the genes of another person, giving me the same bloodline limit of the person, if that person has one. In other words, my bloodline ability allows me tocopy the exact bloodline genes you have as long as both of our blood meet."

Sasuke glances at the wound on his leg. "I see, so that was your aim the whole time... the reason you barely dodged my attacks and kept going on an offensive, trying to cut or slash me."

Asuka smiles sweetly. "Thus, this has given me the Sharingan as well. The effects of this ability will not last long, but those few minutes thatI have the Sharingan will be enough to kill you."

"_Tch, this type of opponent… is she actually unbeatable?"_

Sasuke prepares to defend himself as she runs straight at him with a kunai in one hand. Sasuke assumes her attack and defends against it but she suddenly disappears and reappears upside down right behind him.

"Too slow," she states calmly as she slashes the back of Sasuke's knees.

Sasuke attempts to strike her but flinches at the burning pain from the wounds on his legs. Asuka nimbly pushes herself up into the air once again using her hands and gives Sasuke a spinning roundhouse kick right at the face which sends him flying toward a nearby bush.

"Ah, so this is the power of the Sharingan… it's all about insight and prediction. The better you are at those aspects, the more effective the Sharingan is," she says softly, almost to herself.

Unseen threads suddenly wraps itself around Asuka's body, and pulls her toward a nearby tree, not allowing her to move an inch.

Asuka forces herself to move but could not do so. _"What?!?! How did he…_"

Sasuke emerges from the bushes, clearly in pain. "It doesn't matter if you have the Sharingan, if you can't move, it'll be of no use to you." He then performs his hand seals.

"_**Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu!!"**_

Sasuke sends an extremely long blaze of fire at Asuka incinerating almost everything in it's path.

"Damn!!!" Asuka screams. _"I shouldn't have underestimated him… he is Itachi's brother after all..."_

Naruto suddenly appears right before Asuka and cuts her off the tree. He then grabs her, jumps out of the way, and does a Kage Bunshin right before the flames incinerate the whole area.

Naruto then places Asuka on top of a tree, and then signals something to the Naruto clone, who starts performing hand seals. The Naruto clonesthenuses **_Fuuton Daitoppa _**aimed at Sasuke. Sasuke barely dodges the high density wind blast, but Naruto had already performed his own hand seals. **_"Hyouton Hyouryuudan no Jutsu!!"_**

An enormous ice dragon suddenly forms within the wind attack and hits Sasuke head on, pushing him through the forest and freezing everything in it's path.

Asuka stares in amazement. _"I see… the Fuuton Daitoppa was a not just a decoy, it was a set-up for the more powerful attack to come. The winds blew off all the moisture from the area, and since this is a forest, there's a lot of moisture. He then froze the moisture gathered inside the daitoppa, and created another attack from within it."_

Sasuke could barely stand up after the attack because the ice dragon had also frozen the flowing blood coming from his wounds. He could even barely feel his legs, and the environment was starting to get colder by the second.

Sasuke gazes upward and sees the form of Naruto, whom he could not recognize because of the straw hat which covered Naruto's face.

"Sasuke… just give up. Give up everything right now. Stay away from Orochimaru, stay away from Konoha… basically, escape. Escape from this war, Uchiha Sasuke… before you die," said the voice.

Sasuke felt like he had heard that voice before, but he just couldn't pinpoint from where. No matter how cold the voice sounded, he felt like he knew that voice, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

A multitude of kunai and shuriken suddenly appear from above Sasuke, and Naruto nimbly dodges every single one.

Rui and Masashi suddenly appear right beside Sasuke.

"Heh, it looks like you met your match, eh, Uchiha bastard?" Masashi says with a grin.

Naruto just stands there, looking on calmly.

"Who is he, Sasuke-sama? Is he from the Akatsuki? Did he hurt you too much?" Rui's face was full of concern, and she proceeded to heal the wounds on his legs.

"Sasuke, I'll tell you this again. Leave them. Leave the war. I don't want to be the one to kill you, but if you get in the way, I will do so."

Something sparks in the back of Sasuke's mind, and he suddenly remembers the owner of the voice. Memories of his time in the Hidden Leaf Village flood back to him, and atop those memories, were one face.

Uzumaki Naruto.

"Naruto…" Sasuke says calmly as he tries to get up. Naruto flinches a bit as he hears his name, though the reaction was so slight that Sasuke barely noticed it.

"You want me to get away, to leave everything behind, to basically abandon the path that I've been walking for years?"

Naruto merely nods.

"Well I'll tell you what, dobe… that's not going to happen. Both of us chose to take different paths, and so now we have different paths we must travel. I've worked so long and hard to achieve my goal, and now you're telling me to abandon it?!? You really are an idiot… if you can't bear to fight me, then why don'tYOU just give up and walk away?"

"Sasuke…"

"You idiot!!! Do you think you're better than me, saying all those things in my face like you know everything? Heh, I'm telling you right now, if YOU get in MY way, I WILL kill you."

Naruto merely stares at Sasuke, with a heavy heart in tow.

"_So it comes to this… in the end, when all paths meet, fighting is still the only way out…"_

"Hmph, if you won't listen to what I say, Uchiha bastard, then I don't care what it takes just to make you understand... even if I have to break all your arms and legs to do it!!!"

Memories of the last battle he and Sasuke had flow back into Naruto's mind. He had said the exact same thing, the only difference was that he was determined back then to bring the bastard back to the Leaf… Now, he didn't want the bastard to get involved in the war.

"_You are… my closest friend."_ Sasuke's voice echoes in Naruto's mind, as he prepares to attack the three.

"Stop this, Naruto." Girochi suddenly appears beside him, with Asuka right behind him. "We're going back. You can kill these fools some other time."

Naruto looks around, as if looking for something. "Where's Gaara?"

"That's the problem. Orochimaru has him. It looks like our plans will be a little delayed. Let's retreat for now."

Girochi then jumps away, and Naruto turns around, but looks at Sasuke one last time.

"Consider what I said, Sasuke. It's your life that's on the line."

He then follows after Girochi, together with Asuka.

---------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke sighs as he is carried by Masashi on his back. It was a very tiring day, and they still quite a ways to go before reaching the Hidden Village of Sound.

Sasuke smiles, and realizes that the smile was a warm one, something he did not have for a long time.

"_Thanks a lot, dobe, but I can't do what you want. The next time we face each other, we will be enemies as well as friends."_

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_Glossary:_

_**Hito no Kawarimi (**_Human_** Replacement)**_ - an advanced type of replacement technique that uses a human body instead of a log to produce a much more deceptive effect

**_Katon Housenka (Mythical Fire Flower/Phoenix Flame) _**- a jutsu wherein the user expels a large number of fireballs while aiming at just one target.

**_UruhaBloodline (No Name as of yet)_**- the Mother of all Bloodlines; it allows the user to manipulate one's blood, and it also gives the user the ability to copy the bloodline abilities of any enemy who has an Advanced Bloodline for a short period of time; however, usage of the bloodline to a certain extent can also damage the user.

**_Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Flame Dragon Skill)_** - an extremely powerful fire jutsu that incinerates almost everything in it's path; it is usually used after the enemy is immobilized so as not to waste any chakra used up by the user.

**_Hyouton Hyouryuudan no Jutsu (Ice Release: Ice Dragon Blast Skill) _**- a powerful ice attack that needs the presence of water; the water is then frozen and manipulated to form a dragon which attacks the opponent and freezes the area as well.

**_Kage Bunshin (Shadow Replication)_** - a jutsu wherein the user is capable of creating a physical body instead of an illusion; the replications are given their own chakra for them to move around.

_Author's Note:_ Well, that's it!!! I don't really know if you guys expected more from Sasuke, or if you guys expected more from Asuka. And also, I haven't revealed all the details about Asuka just yet, because i think she would lose her mystery factor if i did so(much like Koujiro). I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!!! Review please!!!


	11. Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Well, here's the new chapter. Wow, I was actually able to update faster. Anyway, thanks again for the reviews. Hope you people like this chapter too (after all that intensity, i needed to create some "fillers" to tone the intensity down a bit)

Normal - narration/conversation

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

plur: i'm happy you found that meeting to be pretty intense, hehe.  
Liliath: haha, thanks a lot! reviews really drive me to write and create better chapters!  
PersonaJXT: well, i updated a little faster this time. hehe, don't worry, each chapter brings us closer to the next NaruHina meeting!  
Joel: hehehe, thanks for the review! youma's are strong, but even the strongest have weakness, right?   
Chocobaby: well, Naruto joined a group that was cool, so he had to learn a few cool stuff, right?   
Donut-Nin: don't worry, you'll be seeing more of Asuka soon enough. but for now, consider her to be a part of the 'mystery people' (much like Koujiro and the silver-haired man).

Anyway, here's the new chapter!

-  
Shikamaru paces to and fro impatiently, waiting for Temari's results from the medical ninjas. He had thought that she had just lost a lot of blood due to the kunai which was lodged in her stomach; he had not realized that she also a few broken bones to go along with it.

"Oy, Shikamaru, calm down," calls out Chouji, who was sitting down on the bench and looking at Shikamaru with worry in his eyes.

"Argh, I'm a jounin, and I'm supposed to make sure that my team comes back in one piece. I always knew that it was going to be this troublesome, but that girl, if it wasn't for that troublesome girl, I wouldn't be a jounin."

Chouji looks at the medical room and then looks at Shikamaru thoughtfully.

"_Shikamaru's changed so much since Temari came... he was always so lazy, but now…"_

The door of the medical room suddenly opens, and Temari steps out of the room. She looked weak and needed to support herself using the door, and Shikamaru runs over and starts helping her walk.

"You lazy ass… what are you doing here? You should have gone to the 5th!"

Shikamaru sighs and looks at Chouji, who was eyeing them thoughtfully.

Chouji grins. "Hehe, no worries, Temari. I already went to the 5th in place of Shikamaru and told her the situation. She's already sent all the jounin and chuunin that she could spare towards the Hidden Sand. Shikamaru was too worried for you leave." Chouji's grin grew even larger, and lets out a little snicker.

Temari smiles. "Heh, you idiot. I don't need you worrying over me." But she continues to lean on Shikamaru.

After a few minutes of walking towards the Hokage's office, Temari looks up at the clouds, and speaks out again.

"I wonder what happened… in Suna…"

Shikamaru looks at the clouds as well. "I'm sure… everything's alright…"

But Shikamaru wasn't confident with his words. Something told him that there was something wrong.

"_Damn, what a troublesome feeling. I wonder, what HAS happened at Suna…"_

_-_

Naruto looks around at the large room where almost all the Akatsuki members were meeting.

"_How boring… I wonder why He had to call all of us this time?"_

Naruto yawns and stretches his hands high up in the air while doing so. Koujiro, who was sitting right beside him reaches out and taps him on the shoulder.

"Naruto-kun, it's rude to yawn so openly at a social gathering," Koujiro says with a smile.

"Ahhh, Koujiro-san, it's soo boring here… I thought we were being called for a new mission, but all I get is having to sit here with all these people."

"So what's so wrong with sitting with us, huh? You almost never go these meetings anyway," Kisame answers with a harsh voice.

"Hehe, look who's talking, yeah? You almost never come too anyway, Kisame. Plus let's add the fact that you're usually late, and you can never come with an excuse except 'I was sharpening Samehada…'" Yomi jokingly states.

"Yeah, Yomi's right, you've never ever come early or on time… Sharpening my Samehada my ass, your Samehada doesn't cut, it shaves!" Meimi jokes out loud.

All the Akatsuki members present were either chuckling silently or laughing out loud, Naruto being the loudest one.

"Kuso, why do you guys always make fun of me? Why don't you make fun of Hibiki? He looks more like a freak than I do," Kisame says in a hurt tone.

At the word 'freak' the gigantic member of Akatsuki suddenly stands up and slams his hands on the table.

"Say that again, shark boy, and I'll make sure this fist of mine embeds itself right on your face," the gigantic man says out loud.

"Oooooohhhh!" cries the whole Akatsuki group, apart from Kisame.

"You wanna fight, Stone freak?" Kisame draws his Samehada, and readies himself.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight!" chanted the Akatsuki group, Naruto and Meimi being the loudest chanters of them all.

"Bring it on, you Mist reject!"

"If you're going to fight, at least have enough courtesy to not do so in this room. We don't want Him to see this room trashed before we can even begin the meeting," Itachi says calmly.

"Stop being such a goody-two-shoes, Uchiha. Let them fight wherever they want. They'll be the ones who'll be punished anyway," Girochi states while excitedly waiting for the fight to begin.

"Yeah! Yeah! Fight!" Meimi chants out loud.

"In one corner, we have the Mist reject…" Naruto starts.

"I'm not a Mist reject! I prefer to be called a 'Mist rebel'…"

"Pfff…yeah, whatever…" Yomi says while trying to stop his laughter.

"The Shark-look alike with a bad-ass attitude, Hoshigaki Kisame!" Naruto announces.

No one claps nor cheers.

"Ahem, ahem, and in the opposite corner, we have the ex-Stone Guardian, the fr—"

Hibiki coughs a little and gives Naruto a deadly glare.

"Ahem, I mean the guy who stands 7 feet and 2 inches with arms dangling down like a monkey, the master of taijutsu, Yatsumi Hibiki!" Naruto announces yet again.

Still no claps or cheers.

A few seconds later, the whole group bursts out in laughter, including Kisame and Hibiki.

"Having a lot of fun, aren't we?"

Everyone suddenly stops laughing and looks at the newcomer. Upon seeing the long silver hair, everyone quickly takes a seat. There was silence for a few seconds, no one even daring to talk out loud.

"Uhhh, is this really how quiet meetings are around here?"

Naruto leans forward and sees Asuka, who was standing behind the silver-haired man.

"Ahhhhh! Asuka-chan! So nice to see you!" Naruto shouts out loud.

The silver-haired man looks at Naruto and smiles. "As energetic as always, aren't we Naruto?"

Naruto grins and looks at the Akatsuki group, apparently looking at him like he was some weird creature who had just appeared out of nowhere.

"What! Why's everyone looking at me!"

Koujiro leans forward and whispers in Naruto's ear. "Don't mind them too much, Naruto-kun. It's just that… no one's actually been that friendly with Him, and for Him to smile and joke around… it's not an ordinary event."

The silver-haired man takes a seat at the head of the table, and motions Asuka to sit in one of the empty chairs.

The silver-haired man begins. "Well, it's been a few days since Girochi and Kuroro's failed operation at the Sand. As all of you may know, Kuroro was killed in that particular mission."

"That weakling… I told you, you should have sent me, then that operation would have been a success…" Itachi begins.

"That doesn't matter, Itachi. It was good that I sent Kuroro out, because I was able to judge how weak he truly was… And a shinobi as weak as him doesn't have the right to live, let alone be a part of our group."

"Hmph, that guy was the weakest in our group anyways, and he was a replacement for one of the previous members who was killed during another mission," Hibiki says with scorn.

"Yeah, He was killed by two Leaf jounin, namely Hatake Kakashi and a man our sources have named as Maito Gai, who were both on a mission then," Yomi states.

The silver-haired man smiles. "Yes, we can't have members that are so easily killed. We need to be a group containing the ultimate ninjas if we truly want to achieve our goal. Anyway, Uruha Asuka, please stand up."

Asuka complies, and looks around nervously.

"From now on, you will be a part of Akatsuki's main group, namely us nine. Congratulations, Ms. Uruha."

Asuka's eyes widen with surprise, and she suddenly looks at Naruto. "But… but why not put Naruto into the main group? He's not a part of the main nine, isn't he?"

The silver-haired man leans back and joins the tips of his fingers together. "Well, he isn't really a part of the main group, so we can say that he isn't exactly part of the Akatsuki Nine. However, he is a special case. We all consider him to be our equal, and he is, in essence, a part of Akatsuki as a whole.

"Anyway, Asuka, please sit down. The main point of discussion here is the fact that Orochimaru has now obtained Gaara of the Desert. We have lost a youma manipulator, and this may become a little troublesome for us. If Orochimaru gains full control of Gaara's body and his powers, it will put the Hidden Sound at an advantage. Orochimaru's next move will most probably be the destruction of the Hidden Leaf, thus this may mean that the other hidden villages may strike an alliance with Sound just to destroy the Leaf and the Sand.

Meimi suddenly interjects. "Hm, I really don't get this. You're making it sound like the Leaf is so important that it should not be destroyed. If they wipe the Leaf out, then let them! That's one less village to worry about."

The silver-haired man closes his eyes, and, after a few seconds of silence, opens them again. "Quite right, Meimi. If we allow them to destroy Konoha now, then that WILL be one less village to think about. However, we cannot let this happen. That village… is significant to our goals. We will need that village for the final step of our plan."

Koujiro looks straight the silver-haired man, and for a second, Naruto senses a slight killing intent in those green eyes. That feeling didn't last for long, but the intent was so powerful that it made Naruto's hair stand on end.

"_What the heck! Normally, when a person glares at me with killing intent, I'm not even fazed at all… but this intent, it wasn't even aimed at me, but it made my hair stand on end… it was so strong…"_

The silver-haired man didn't seem to notice, and continued on. "Therefore, we must change a few of our plans. We will create some problems with Sound's alliance with the Hidden Stone and Hidden Rain, and we must also convince the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Mist to give a large portion of their attention towards Sound, and away from the Leaf.

"Itachi, you will be paired up with Kisame once again, and your mission will be to cause a few problems within the alliance of the Hidden Stone and Sound. I'm quite sure that the Hidden Rain will go with Stone, being the larger village.

"Girochi, I want you to inform our other forces to begin an attack on the Mist under the name of the Sound. You will lead that group, but you are not allowed to conquer orkill ninjas.It should only be small skirmishes which will be enough to turn their attention towards the Hidden Sound. Oh, and gather the five remaining Swordsmen of the Mist. I'm sure they will lovetrashing their former village.

"Yomi, you will be going with Meimi, and it will be your duty to go to the Hidden Village of the Moon. There, you must acquire the Forbidden Scroll of the village and then sow some rumours that the Hidden Cloud did it; this may produce an alliance with the Hidden Leaf, therefore fortifying the Leaf.

"Hibiki, it will be your job to gather another part of our forces, preferably those who were once part of the Hidden Cloud. Then it will be your job to attack the Hidden Village of the Grass, andupon doing so,I want you to invade it and fortify your position in that village. I'm quite sure you are capable of doing that. This will keep the Hidden Cloud busy, and it will serve as a decoy, if ever the other villages decide to try to attack the Leaf. Since the Hidden Leaf is larger than the Hidden Cloud, the other villages will have second thoughts on attacking the Leaf, and will instead target the weaker Cloud because of it's loss of an ally.

"I will be going to the Hidden Village of Ice, in order to capture their Scroll of Sealing. That village won't have that much of an impact in the war because of it's distance and it's location."

He faces Koujiro, Asuka, and Naruto. "And as for the three of you, I will be sending you to the Hidden Village of the Leaf. The three of you will protect that village until I give out further orders."

Koujiro's eyes suddenly widen. "I will have to object to your decision. For one, Naruto and I are both known in that village. I am also considered a traitor in that village, and if they figure out who I am, it will cause some problems. Naruto has also been considered a missing nin, and I am quite sure the ANBU will not hesitate to kill him as well. Besides, Naruto's emotions could change if he returns to that village…"

"Koujiro-san." Naruto was surprised that his voice was so cold, but he knew that it was appropriate for this topic. "Don't worry. That village will not affect me in any way whatsoever. I will still be the weapon the Akatsuki wants me to be. No village can ever change that."

Koujiro looks at Naruto with an unreadable expression. He then looks away, and Naruto could feel that there was a slight amount of regret in Koujiro's heart.

"Alright then." Koujiro sounded resigned, and he looked drained.

"Good. Everyone has been given their missions. We will execute this operation two days from now. Make sure that you make the most out of those two days for your preparations. The meeting is dismissed."

-

Neji looked at the destruction outside the walls of the Hidden Village of Sand. Destruction, that is, of the Hidden Sound's armies. Countless Sound ninja's bodies were still lying on the sand, and almost every single one had at least one body part missing. He had never seen so much dead bodies, and he still could not believe that this was the result of just one day.

"So this is the power Orochimaru now possesses, hm, Neji?"

Neji turned around and looked at Lee, who had just spoken up. Lee was also looking at the same scene of destruction that Neji was looking at, and his thick eyebrows gave away the extreme fear and disgust in his eyes.

"Yeah," Neji says quietly.

"Then this means we must start to fortify Konoha before he attacks." Lee then raises his right hand, and makes a fist. "We can't allow Konoha to suffer this fate."

Neji could tell that Lee was afraid. And, in truth, he was too. He still remembered the last time Orochimaru had attacked Konoha. He had killed the Third, who was already considered to be 'The God of Shinobi,' and had wreaked quite an amount of havoc and destruction in the outskirts of the village.

"_Now that he has Gaara's body, another attack from Sound could mean our destruction…"_

Neji and Lee's reverie was interrupted by the shouting of a girl who was running towards them.

The pink-haired kunoichi, Sakura, stopped right in front of them, still trying to catch her breath.

"Neji! Lee! We need to get back! There's nothing more we can do here, and the Kazekage has formally thanked us and allowed us to go back home. Let's go! I'm sure we're needed there more than here."

All three hurry to the eastern entrance of the village, and find most of the Konoha shinobi ready to go. Gai was also talking to the sand jounin Baki, while Kankurou was just sitting on a rock while speaking with Kiba.

Gai suddenly sees them and smiles. "Yosh! Let's go! We need to get back as soon as possible!"

Baki motions to a few Sand nins, who formed a group. "Alright, the Kazekage has also ordered us to support the Hidden Leaf Village, and we must do so. Remember: I know that this may be hard, but once the major battle begins, we must remember that Gaara is our enemy, and we will have no choice but to kill him."

Kankurou sounded hurt at having to kill his own brother, with whom he had gotten a little closer to ever since the leaf nin Uzumaki Naruto had changed him.

"Yosh! Let's not waste any more time. We must be off!"

-

Author's Note: OK, so this chapter is more of a filler, but I needed to use a chapter to set-up the future events to come. Sorry to all those who were expecting more. Hope you liked it! Review please!


	12. Homecoming

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Hello again! I was able to update a little faster, due to the three day break that I got from school. Hehehe, that's why here's the next chapter(yes! you don't need to wait for a week for this!) Here we go!

Normal - conversation/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

Ero-SENIN: Hehe, well even though the Akatsuki are a bunch of S-rank criminals, they're still people, right? I don't want them to look like a bunch of dark, brooding, hermit-like group, so made them like that. (of course they do know when to get serious)  
Silver Kitsune: thank you! Here's the next chaper!  
Sirius183: oh sorry if the ending was kinda not like an ending at all, but that chapter was just like a "filler" anyway... I needed to make it a connection between the previous 10 chapters and the next ones.  
Chocobaby: well, you don't need to eait (yes, yes, I know you meant wait ) any longer, coz here's chap. 12!  
PersonaJXT: Ooooh, nice ideas... hehe, i'll keep those in mind, but I can't assure you that it'll go the way you want it... you made me think of alot of new ideas though. thanks

Chapter 12: Begin!

-

Sasuke inspects his surroundings carefully, and quickly formulates his plan. His legs were still stinging from the wounds that he got from his previous encounter with Naruto, and he absently clutches the Heaven Seal that Orochimaru had given him.

"_I will be on equal terms with my brother. I WILL!"_

Sasuke then draws a few kunai from his pouch and runs toward the target right in front him which was hanging at the middle of a large tree. He then jumps up in the air, twirls, and throws a kunai towards each of the targets which were hidden amongst the branches of a tree or in bushes, while throwing an extra one in a random direction. After achieving a full 360 degree spin, he then flings his second to the last kunai right at the target in front of him, and he then throws his last one at the extra kunai, sending it at such an angle that it drops down and hits something with a loud 'clunk'.

Every single kunai was right at the middle of it's target, including a target which was hidden completely in his blind side.

"Very impressive, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke looks up at the trees towards the speaker, and finds Rui sitting right on a tree branch, smiling at him.

"_Hmm, should I smile back? Is that what this girl wants? If this girl was Sakura or Ino, would she have wanted me to smile back? Oh what the heck, I might as well just do so."_

A small smile creeps up in his face, and Rui's expression changes from a smile to amazement.

"_Don't I smile enough times? She looks like she's never ever seen me do it before."_

Sasuke then proceeds to retrieve the kunai he had thrown, and he notices as Rui jumps down from the tree and starts picking the kunai as well.

After collecting everything, she then heads over towards Sasuke, and gives them to him with a blush and a smile.

"Thank you… Rui."

Rui blushes even more as he looks her right in the eyes, and she turns away.

"Um, n-no problem, Sasuke-sama."

"Let's go eat somewhere, shall we? I'm hungry, and I haven't had lunch yet."

-

Rui looked like she was the happiest girl in the world as she walked right beside Sasuke as they went towards a small restaurant inside the 'Higher Octave'of the village.

"_I've never been able to eat alone with Sasuke-sama before. This is so exciting! Maybe he finally likes me?"_

She remembers the time she spent with in the medical room a few days ago as he was being treated. She had almost never left his side, and she was afraid that he would be unable to walk again because of the ice jutsu that froze the blood and the veins in his legs. She secretly loathed the man named Uzumaki Naruto for doing this to Sasuke, but she also secretly thankedthe same manfor changing Sasuke.

After Sasuke was allowed to go, she had noticed a small change in him, and she was happy not only to see that he was now mobile but also that his dark nature and brooding nature had seemed to slightly improve.

They walk right into the restaurant, and sit in a table for two.

"I'll have some Sukiyaki and tea, please," Sasuke asks the waiter that comes close.

"I'll be having some Miso Ramen, and tea as well."

Sasuke chuckles a little, and Rui faces him.

"Is something wrong?" Rui asks with a puzzled face.

"No, it's nothing. I just remembered something."

Rui was glad. Sasuke looked thoughtful, and she liked the new Sasuke that was before her.

They ate their meals in silence, mainly because Rui didn't know how to start a conversation with the Uchiha.

After the meal, Sasuke looked thoughtfully at her, and she couldn't stop blushing.

"Rui…"

"Y-yes?"

"If I were to leave or to die, what would you do?"

Rui was suddenly worried. "If you were to die, then I would… cry. And cry some more. You know how much I care for you, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke's small smile was very mysterious. She couldn't tell if he smiling because he was laughing at her or if he was truly concerned about her response.

"And… if you were to leave, I… I would want you to take me with you. I'll go with you wherever you go, no matter what."

Sasuke takes her hand, and smiles at her again. "Rui, thank you. But, you must know right now that I, Uchiha Sasuke, am an avenger. And, because of this, I may die right after achieving my goal. I just want to tell you not to get too close to me anymore, because I don't want to hurt you."

"S-Sasuke-sama, I can't do what you want. I just… can't… b-because I love you, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke looked a little stunned, and then suddenly turns a little serious.

"I don't know what to say, Rui… I really don't know what I feel about you, but I don't want you hurt…"

Rui looks Sasuke and smiles. "Sasuke-sama, if you want to be an avenger, by all means become one. I won't stop you... I'll just always be there for you."

Sasuke looks at her, but looks away immediately. "What if I told you… that part of my mission… part of my goal in life… is to kill our current kage, Orochimaru?"

Rui didn't change her expression. "I already know that, Sasuke-sama. I could already tell. But I don't care. I'll still go with you, no matter what the situation."

"Thank you, Rui."

Rui was suddenly surprised as Sasuke suddenly stands up and moves towards her. He brushes a few strands of hair from her face, tilts her chin a little upwards and then kisses her lips lightly.

The kiss just lasted a second, but for Rui that second was like an eternity. Sasuke then takes her hand and stands her up.

"Let's go, Rui. I still want to train a little more."

Rui blushes and smiles. "Yes, let's go, Sasuke-sama."

-

Gai looks ahead into the distance as he moves quickly through the forest, coming closer and closer to Konoha. He then looks back and sees the Leaf and Sand shinobis gradually slowing down.

"_Hmph, these ninjas need a lot more training, I can't believe they're getting tired already!"_

He looks at the figure right next to him and grins. Lee was the only ninja in the whole group who was capable of keeping with him, and he was proud of his student, despite his inability in the areas of gen- and ninjutsu.

Lee had not changed much. He still had the will of fire, even more so this time than in the past. He still had those thick eyebrows, but his hair was just a little longer. He still wore the green suit, but he now wore blue pants a chuunin vest (specially made by Gai, it had weights!) which he wore over the green suit. Lee also wore heavy arm guards which looked a lot like gauntlets, and he still wore the warmers on his legs (the warmers with the weights, this is the strength of youth!).

And yet, even with all those weights on Lee's body, he was STILL capable of coping up with his speed. Gai looked at his student proudly.

"Gai-sensei, I believe we should wait for the others! They seem to lagging behind quite a bit."

"Alright, I'll slow down my pace, but you must remember, Lee, that Konoha is in trouble! We must get there as soon as possible!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei! We must protect Konoha at all costs!" A silent fire burned in Lee's eyes as he said this, and Gai once again looked proudly at his student.

"Gai! Let's stop for a while!" Baki calls out from behind.

"_These ninjas need a LOT more training… I can't believe they want to stop already!"_

Gai then takes one large leap and lands on the ground with Lee doing the exact same thing. The other Sand and Leaf jounin arrive a few moments later, followed by the other ninjas, every single one of them trying to catch their breaths.

"You ninjas need to work out more! Look at Lee! He was capable of keeping with me!" Gai announces.

"Tch, of course Lee can keep up with you!" Kiba shouts roughly. "He was your student, for crying out loud!"

"Aha! That conclusion is fallacious!" Lee shouts back. "Neji can't keep up with Gai-sensei, and he was a part of my team when we trained with Gai-sensei!"

"Kuso, shut up, Lee," Neji whispers hoarsely, still trying to catch his breath.

All of a sudden, roots suddenly sprouted out from underground and held everyone in place. A second later, tree-like structures suddenly appeared from the earth behind each ninja and branches suddenly grabbed their bodies completely making movement impossible.

"Wha-what is this!" shouts Kankurou.

-

Koujiro walks silently towards the group of Leaf and Sand ninjas.

"_I wonder what happened to the quality of ninjas… only two of them were able to escape my ninjutsu… and one of them is that man,Maito Gai."_

Gai suddenly appears to his left and gives him an extremely fast kick which he blocks. Koujiro then ducks down and gives Gai a quick kick right at the jaw which Gai somehow evades, to Koujiro's amazement.

"_So it's true that Gai's taijutsu skills are on a whole different level than most jounin… good thing I train my taijutsu with Hibiki…"_

They jump at opposite directions and almost immediately let a few kunai fly at each other. Both of them are hit, revealing both to be replacements.

"_Damn, he's better than I thought, I can't believe that at my speed, he's still capable of keeping up with me… I sorely underestimated his skill."_

Koujiro jumps and lands upside-down on a branch, just as Gai crashes right through the tree he had been hiding against with atechnique. He then jumps toward Gai who was just regaining his balance after the technique, and tries to punch Gai, who evades quickly.

Koujiro lands and immediately balances himself on one hand and begins to use his spin kick."**_Konoha Senpuu!"_**

Gai is caught unawares by the technique, but is able to dodge it. However, Koujiro was already performing hand seals. **_"Raiton Raiken!"_**

A sword of lightning appears right after the taijutsu technique and Koujiro prepares to swing the sword right at Gai's legs but fails to do so as another figure shows up and hits Koujiro right at the face with a kick.

The sword of lightning dissipates as Koujiro is launched straight at a tree. However, he changes position in mid-air, lands on the tree trunk on both feet, looks at his two opponents.

Before him was Gai, and a seemingly smaller version of Gai, complete with the thick eyebrows.

"_Uhhh, is this Gai's son?"_

"Lee, so nice to see you! With you as my partner, we can defeat this evil man in a flash!" Gai says in a pose with his right arm forward and the thumb sticking up. His teeth create a tiny sparkle, and Koujiro almost loses his balance on the tree as he looks at the strange pose.

"_What a strange man… a strange man indeed…"_

The smaller figure suddenly answers, and does the same pose. "Yes, Gai-sensei! Together, we are unbeatable!"

Koujiro jumps down from his position and shakes his head a little. _"No, not strange… crazy is more like it…"_

Gai suddenly points straight at Koujiro. "You!"

"Uhhh, me?"

"Yes, you! Why did you attack us? What is your purpose?"

Koujiro clears his throat. "I'm here to pursue two traitors who ran away from my village. I have reason to believe that those traitors are actually spies from the Leaf, and since I conveniently find a whole party of Leaf and Sand nins here, it just means that you must be the group backing them up, just so they can escape. I will just have to kill them and your group, then."

The man named Lee answers back. "Aha! Why then, are you going by yourself?"

Koujiro grins. "Because I alone am needed to take care of those traitors and all other who stand in my way."

"From the forehead protector, I can see that you're from the Hidden Sound Village. Hmmm, I see, Orochimaru has begun his operation then…"

"_Good, that's exactly what I want you to think, Maito Gai. Yes, embed it into your skulls. Know that Orochimaru will be attacking the Leaf with a large force, and even now, he prepares his army."_

"Get out of my way!" Koujiro shouts as he charges straight at Gai and Lee.

Gai readies himself as he sees the unnamed Sound nin charge straight right at him and Lee. Suddenly, the Sound nin disappears without a trace, but Gai knew that he was just moving extremely fast.

"_What is this? This man knows how to open his gates as well… it's impossible for any normal human being to go that fast without them!"_

"Lee, be careful! This man can open the gates as well!"

But Lee was already flying towards a tree as he sees the blonde elbow Lee right at the stomach, followed by a backhand right across the face.

"_Tch, this guy… it looks like I have to use Renge on him."_

Gai opens the first gate and attacks the blonde sound nin at high speed. The blonde nimbly dodges Gai's first punch and moves right behind Gai, giving him a kick to the back of the head. Gai blocks the leg and grabs it, pulling the blonde closer to him and giving the blonde an elbow right at his face. The Sound nin moves his head slightly to the side, narrowly missing Gai's elbow and uses his free leg to hit Gai's side, which causes Gai to release his hold on the other leg.

The blonde lands on both hands and pushes himself upward before Gai can hit him with a sweeping kick. Gai looks up only to see the blonde completing his hand seal sequence.

"**_Katon Choukakyuu no Jutsu!_**"

A powerful fire blast is expelled from the Sound nin's mouthburning a large areawithin itsrangeand spreading it's fires by creating waves of flames.

Gai jumps out of the way of the jutsu, but his legs are still caught by some flames. Searing pain coursing through his legs stops Gai right in his tracks and he stumbles as he tries to stop, losing his balance along the way.

"_Kuso… that fire jutsu, that was an extremely powerful fire jutsu that I've never seen before. That ninjutsu level…that level isalready comparable to what the 3rd can do!"_

"It's over," Koujiro states from behind Gai.

Gai was stunned. _"He's… behind me?"_

Gai tries to form a few seals butrealizes that he could not move his right arm.He looks at his right shoulder and sees a kunai sticking right through his shoulder blades. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, but Gai didn't mind the pain. He spins around by shifting the weight of his body and props himself up using his left hand, while forcing his partially burnt legs to hit the Sound ninja. The blonde merely blocks the kick, grabs it, and spins Gai around, throwing him towards the trunk of a tree.

"_Damn it, this guy is too strong…"_

"I told you, it's over,"Koujiro states again.

"No! It's not over yet!"

Koujiro barely sees the flash of green coming from underneath him, before he gets hit by an upward kick from Lee.

Gai's eyes widen. "No Lee! STOP!"

"_Is the boy going to use Omote Renge? Hmm, a powerful technique, but against me, that's worthless…"_

Lee keeps kicking Koujiro higher and higher up into the air. Lee then goes right behind the injured Koujiro and wraps bandages coming from the inside of his arm guard around him.

"Uwaaaaahhhh! **_Omote Renge!_**"

Lee then grasps the body, and begins his downward spin.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Koujiro goes along with the downward spin, but shifts his weight drastically to the side, causing the vertical spin to slant.

"You'll be the one getting the brunt of the blow, you know."

Koujiro then tears through the bandages and grabs Lee's arms, which were still grasping him.

"What?" Lee exclaims in surprise.

"It's over, you won't be able to loosen your hold on me on time, and thus you'll be the one taking the Omote Renge."

Koujiro slips out from Lee's grasp and throws him downward, right before impact, and Lee is driven into the ground with a large crash.

"LEE!"

Koujiro calmly stands from where he had landed, and walks towards Gai.

"Y-you bastard…"

"Hmm, it looks like you barely have enough strength left to even move. You also don't even have enough chakra. You won't be any more trouble to me, then."

Koujiro silently walks away from Gai and goes towards the larger group which he had trapped with a jutsu.

Suddenly, a high-speed spinning figure appears from above and crashes down on him. He avoids the corkscrew-like attack, but loses his balance as the earth underneath suddenly erupts like an earthquake. A figure with long hair suddenly appears right behind him and does a series of palm strikes, which he avoids, but the long-haired figure takes an extremely fast and powerful strike and lands it right on Koujiro's stomach.

Koujiro staggers back a little bit, and suddenly realizes something.

"_What? My chakra flow… it became irregular... when that guy hit me. Is this the Jyuuken? Is he a Hyuuga?"_

Koujiro looks around him.

"_Well, well… it looks like I'm surrounded. In front of me, a Hyuuga, from what I can see from the white eyes. To the side is a guy from the Inuzuka clan, because of that dog which is right beside him. And behind me seems to be a medic nin with monstrous strength."_

Koujiro looks around some more, spots his target, and smiles.

"Sorry, I can't play with you guys right now. I have a job to do."

And before any of them can react, Koujiro runs off towards the target.

"_Two people, a girl and a boy, wearing Sound forehead protectors. Hehe, what a mission…"_

Koujiro catches up with the two and throws a number of kunai right at the back of the guy, who falls down because of the impact of the kunai. The girl then turns around, but he hits her squarely on the stomach, shoulder, and face, causing her to lose consciousness.

"_Well, it's about time…"_

A large number of number of Leaf and Sand ninjas were now surrounding him, readying themselves for battle.

A sand jounin comes forward. "Give up, Sound ninja. Or else, you die."

-

Koujiro looks at the cell he now occupied, and then sighs.

"_Oh well, the discomforts I have to take to accomplish a mission…"_

The road to Konoha had been an uneventful one. He was basically tied up, guarded, and led right into the Hidden Leaf Village. He was presented before Tsunade, the 5th Hokage, who recognized him almost immediately, and was sent to a maximum security prison cell guarded by specialized ninja guards who were former members of the ANBU.

Of course, quite a few number of Leaf shinobi still remembered who he was, and wanted him killed for his crimes, but that was another story. Right now, all he knew was that it was either life imprisonment or the death penalty for him.

Koujiro lies down on the hard bed and looks right at the ceiling.

"_Hah, what a homecoming. It's actually nice to see the Hidden Leaf again, but what's not nice is having to stay in this place for the remainder of my stay here. Darn, Naruto-kun and Asuka-chan have all the fun."_

A figure suddenly stands right in front of his cell, and the guards unlock the partial seal set into the doors. A familiar face and voice speaks out.

"Yo! Long time no see!"

"It's not been that long a time…Remember, we did meet a few weeks back."

"Oh?"The man laughs."Yes, yes, I remember that now. No need to be so serious about things, Koujiro. You'll get old quickly if you don't look at the bright side of life."

Koujiro sits up from his bed and looks at the Leaf jounin, Hatake Kakashi, and then smiles.

"Nice to see you again too, Kakashi-san."

-

Glossary:

**_Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Spinning Wind)_** - a taijutsu technique wherein the user performs a powerful spin kick which sends the opponent upwards.

**_Raiton Raiken_** **_(Lightning Release: Lightning Sword) - _**a special type of ninjutsu wherein the chakra is gathered in the shape of a sword.

**_Katon Choukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Mega Fireball Skill) _**- the user expels an extremely powerful blast of fire that incinerates the target area and spreads a wave of flames which extends the radius of the initial blast

**_Omote Renge (Secondary Lotus) _**- a forbidden taijutsu technique that increases the user's speed and power but destroys the body as well; a kick to the jaw launches the opponent into the air, and using bandages to wrap around the opponent, they are spun down towards the ground with extreme force.

_Author's Note: _Hope you liked this chapter! Review please!


	13. Deception

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... (Though I wish I did)

Note: Ah! Another update! This is amazing! Well, I haven't been that busy lately, so I decided to keep on writing. Hehe, so you wanted me to update soon, well, here's the next chapter!

Normal - conversation/narration

_Italics - thought/voice in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

PersonaJXT: Yeah, you'll be getting answers, but of course I can't reveal everything in a single go... Oh, and the only reason Koujiro can beat thewhole group was because he had the first strike and he had the cover of the forest. If he fights them ALL head on, he probably wouldn't survive(no matter how poweful you are, against a whole group it's like saying you're committing suicide ). That's the reason he didn't fight when he was surrounded (apart from other reasons). Oh, and the only reason he seemed more powerful than Lee and Gai was because of he was better in ninjutsu than them both, and his taijutsuis almost at Gai's level.  
Ero-SENIN: Hehe, I'm sure you can write a lot better than me, as long as you write from the heart!  
Sirius183: Sorry if it's a bit confusing, I hope this new chapter helps shed some light on what you're confused in.  
Chocobaby: Hehe, thanks for eaiting (lol), here's the new chapter!  
Donut-Nin: Yeah, too bad for Koujiro, I feel for him! Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Here we go!

-

"_Hn? What happened? Why does my body feels so comfortable and refreshed… it's like I'm lying on a really soft bed. Ahhh, I really don't want to wake up anymore… so comfortable… so nice to sleep…"_

"Hey, dumb-ass, how are you doing?" came a rough voice.

Naruto opens his eyes, only to see that he was once again in the room of the Kyuubi.

"ARGHHH! Why, oh why, do you always torture me by pulling me away whenever I feel comfortable? Can't you wait till I have a nightmare, and THEN pull me out of it?"

The demon snickers. "Hehehe, I just love torture, you do know who and what I am."

"Kuso… ok, why do want to speak to me this time?" Naruto asks rudely.

A large claw suddenly juts out from the bars, and large jaws suddenly spring out from the darkness and bites the bars. Naruto jumps back and prepares himself, but the demon fox just laughs.

"Foolish, foolish boy… do you really think you're any match for me in power? One swing of my tail can carve mountains, one step can create quakes, my breath can burn forests…"

Naruto didn't look intimidated. "That must be one hell of a bad breath you got, damn fox."

"Hmph, you stupid, idiotic, boy…" Kyuubi smiled.

A few seconds pass in silence, and Naruto and the Kyuubi looked at each other, not one creating a sound.

"Uh, you idiot, didn't you notice anything?"

"Notice what?" Naruto looked genuinely puzzled.

"The seal, you stupid dropout, the SEAL! I was capable of holding the bars, and not only that, I was able to crack it a little."

"What!" screams Naruto, and runs close to the bars, examining them closely.

Naruto looks at the bars very carefully, and gasps. The bars bore marks, scratches, and cracks, which were not there back then.

"Do you know what this means, stupid boy?"

Naruto's face darkens. "This means the seal is weakening…"

"Yes, foolish boy…"

"And you can now finally be released into the world… just like what the Akatsuki wants…"

The Kyuubi looks at Naruto. "Dobe, let me tell you something, something that was never told to you by anyone."

Naruto looks up with a serious face and cold eyes.

"The Akatsuki are fools… do they really think that I will be released just because the seal is broken?"

Naruto's eyes widen in wonder. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Once the seal breaks, my soul will be released from it's prison; however, because I lack a body to go out into the world, my true demon form can never be released. And that's where you come in.

"You are my container. You are my body, thus, once I am released, my full power will be at your disposal. In other words, you and I will become one."

"But aren't we one right now?"

"No, we are not. I am a separate entity, and you are a separate entity. I am the demon, and you are the container. When I mean one, I mean our consciousness and our souls will merge and become one. You will become me."

Naruto's eyes narrow. "And, so what? So what if you and I become one? That would make me a perfect weapon, because with your full demonic power, I will be unstoppable."

The demon fox sighs. "You have gained my respect, foolish boy, but that statement makes me think twice about it. Is that really how much you hate the Hidden Leaf? Let me just tell you something. Once we become one, my vices will become a part of you, meaning we will become an uncontrollable puppet of destruction. You won't be able to control yourself any longer, and you will become a monster. A Kyuubi incarnate, so to speak."

Naruto eyes the demon fox suspiciously, but the Kyuubi continues on.

"You have a choice, dobe. Would you throw away the life of all those who cared for you back then, just to have your stupid revenge? Just so you could channel your hatred to all those who once hated you? I told you before, it doesn't matter if you do create a new dawn, there will always be people who will experience loneliness. You cannot save every one of them, nor can you change them all. All you can do, is not create even more loneliness for others because of your decision.

"I know it's like I'm saying that I do not want to get away from your body, but you have gained a lot more respect from me that you can ever imagine. You will be destroying your life if you choose to unseal me."

Naruto remembers all those who had helped him in the past, all those who had cared for him. But he also remembers that specific night, that night that changed everything. Naruto burst into tears.

"Tch, I… I don't know what to do… A part of me wants to destroy everything, while another part… another part knows that all that you've said is true…"

"Well then, at least do it for the Hyuuga girl… would you want to create loneliness for her?"

Naruto remembers Hinata, and smiles a little.

"And do you remember the dream… that dream wherein you kill her?"

Naruto's eyes widen in horror. He knew that nightmare. He had almost always had that nightmare, a nightmare that he could never bear, a nightmare he had always tried to forget but could not do so.

"The seal can only be undone by the container, the 4th made sure of that. He put his trust in you. Didn't you want to surpass all the Hokages? No Hokage would want to destroy just for revenge."

The Kyuubi ponders on his previous words, and once again remembers the words of the Yondaime.

_I have something to protect, damn fox. All my family, all my friends, all the people who are looking up to me as someone who will be able to save them… I am the 4th Hokage, and the will of Konoha is set upon my shoulders! Even if I die, other people will inherit my will, and Konoha will continue to stand!_

_I will protect them… even at the cost of my own life!_

"This is truly none of my business, because by you undoing the seal, I will be free. But my respect for you has grown over the time we have been together. Uzumaki Naruto, if you choose the wrong path, then death will be the fate of that girl, and everyone else."

-

"So… how's life, Kakashi-san?"

Koujiro looks at the white-haired jounin who was now sitting on a chair across him.

"Oh, life's good. We're at war, if you haven't noticed already."

Koujiro laughs a little. "Yes, I noticed." He looks at Kakashi a little more closely, and notices a little orange book.

"Ah! So you also read the 'Come Come Paradise' series?"

Kakashi's right eye widens. "Yes! Don't you? It's such an excellent book!"

Koujiro laughs again. "Yes, I've read until the third volume. My other comrades have the other books. May I borrow that book of yours when you're done?"

Kakashi laughs with him. "You haven't changed a bit, Koujiro-kun."

"Neither have you, 'big brother'."

Kakashi's face suddenly became dark and serious.

"Why did you leave, Koujiro? I really don't understand it. I know that the people of Konoha hated you, but you never listened to them when you were a child. I treated you just like a 'little brother', and still will, even now. But after the Kyuubi incident…"

Koujiro's face turns serious. "I have my reasons, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi eyes the blonde sharply. "And do one of those reasons include you killing the 4th, the only person who became just like a father to you? The Death God would have killed him by pulling out his soul, but you sped things up by slaying him yourself!"

Koujiro eyes Kakashi darkly. "You would never understand, 'big brother'. Killing him… it was hard for me too. That time…"

Koujiro closes his eyes and sees the Yondaime's face in the darkness, in exactly that scene he had been in many years ago.

_"Koujiro, do it. It's the only way. And please… please take care of Naruto. I want the people of Konoha to treat him as a hero, and respect him accordingly, for sealed inside him is the youma which tried to destroy us all…_

_Goodbye, Koujiro."_

"If I were to say that what I did was the only way to seal off the Kyuubi, would you have believed me? You would probably think just like all of these people, and say that I was just taking an opportunity to kill the Hokage."

Kakashi felt a slight pang of guilt, for those words were exactly what he had felt when he saw what Koujiro did all those years ago. He had hated him for taking away the 4th, and despite him treating Koujiro as a brother, did not even think of any other reason except that Koujiro was from another village and was sent to assassinate the 4th, not even caring if this was true or not.

"So… is this your revenge, Koujiro? Have you joined the Akatsuki to finally come to destroy us all?"

Koujiro smiles a little. "You draw conclusions a little bit too quickly, Kakashi-san. I told you… I have my own reasons."

"What exactly is your purpose then, Koujiro? I honestly think that you're doing this for revenge, but there are other factors telling me that you aren't as well.

"For one, at that time at the Hidden Village of Rain, you said that you had killed most of the Stone and Rain ninjas that were there. However, when I checked one of the bodies, they were just in a state of temporary death, wherein their heart would beat in such a slow rate that it would be almost imperceptible, especially toa normal ninja who was not trained medically or by the ANBU.

"Next, we have your battle against Gai and Lee. You were almost on even terms with Gai's taijutsu, but from what I saw, you purposely didn't hit any vital points in his system, which of course you could have easily done, if you were able to put those ninjas in a temporary death state. You also did not kill off Lee, because when I looked at the crater produced by the Omote Renge, I could see that the crater was not created by Lee's fall, but by a force which was applied at high speed to make it look like it was done by the Renge; I've concluded that you purposely created that crater so as to lessen the impact for Lee.

"Next, we have your surprise attack on the group. What I don't understand is this: why didn't you finish the group off? If you had trapped them within your jutsu already, why not finish them all off? Instead, you opted to wait for Gai to attack you, thus you purposely lost control of the jutsu, freeing them. From what I can see, you were stalling us. Why then, would you be stalling us?

"Finally, we have those two so-called spies. If they were really spies, why then didn't you make sure they were dead? There was a small amount of time before the group caughtup withyou and the spies you were pursuing. You could have easily kllled them off in that span of time.

"Therefore, I'm being led to believe that there's something going on here. It looks like we will have to keep an eye on those 'spies'. They could very well be spies for the Akatsuki, or for the Sound.

"However, what I cannot understand, is why you are here. If those two were really spies of the Akatsuki, then why were you not with them; you could probably just get in here with a disguise. This has also led me to believe that those are NOT spies, then."

Koujiro looks at Kakashi and grins mysteriously. "Kakashi-san, you think too much. Just take things as they are."

Kakashi stands up, and starts to leave.

"Well, see you some other time, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi looks at Koujiro, and smiles. "It was good to see you again, 'little brother'. If circumstances were different, I would have taken you back in. And I'm happy that I was able to see that you've developed your skills to this level. The 4th has always said that you have the potential to surpass him and all the previous Hokages."

"Heh, thank you, 'big brother'. When we get to fight each other… I'll make sure I don't disappoint you."

-

Koujiro waits a few minutes after Kakashi had left, and takes a sigh of relief.

"_Tch, his insight is so darn sharp. I never imagined that he would be capable of coming to those conclusions so quickly. Looks like I can't relax here one bit. Those two had better be on their guard too. It's too risky to be found out just yet."_

_-_

Kakashi walks in the streets of Konoha, contemplating his meeting with Koujiro deeply.

"_He's hiding something… I can tell that much. But what? Why is he here in the first place? If he was supposed to be a spy, then they must be thinking we're so stupid that we can't even notice a guy who's part of our personal bingo book."_

"It must have something to do with those two who he was 'hunting'…" Kakashi mumbles.

-

Naruto opens his eyes to a white ceiling, and as he moved his body around, he realized that he was on an extremely comfortable bed. He was covered from below his chest to his feet with a white, soft blanket, and the cuddly pillow that his head was on made him want to go back to sleep.

"So, you're awake," came a voice from the far left of the room.

Naruto begins to panic. _"Shit! There's someone here! They might see…"_

Naruto sits up and immediately looks at the window and at his reflection, but realizes that the genjutsu was still on him.

And the genjutsu was done well enough, enough for him to rival Tsunade's genjutsu which she placed on herself. He had black hair, and his eyes were yellowish instead of the blue or red that anyone might notice. The whisker marks were gone, and his tan skin was replaced with a fair one.

"_Wow, I never thought I would look so good in this genjutsu."_

"Ahem."

Naruto turns his head to the left, and sees a familiar face looking at him. It was Kakashi.

"Well, now that you've stopped admiring yourself, I just need to ask you a few questions."

Naruto looks at Kakashi with bored eyes, and nods.

"First question: what was the information that you were supposed to give us from Sound? I'm sorry, but this is of utmost importance, and this question can't wait till you're fully recovered."

"I… I... I don't know… I don't… remember much…" Naruto begins.

"_Yes, this is the plan. Amnesia. Koujiro made sure that the ninjas knew what his capability was, and his attack on me was supposed to have hit a nerve which induced memory loss. A perfect cover up. Hehe."_

"I… see." Kakashi didn't show any emotion at all, and just continued staring at him.

Naruto stared back with seemingly clouded and expressionless eyes. _"Hehe, one of the skills Koujiro made me learn: how to not express any emotion at all. But, damn, I never knew Kakashi's eyes were this piercing."_

After a few seconds of staring between the two, Kakashi withdrew. "Okay. It seems that you may need to recover more. I'm sorry for bothering you, and I hope for your recovery."

Naruto looks on as Kakashi stands up and leaves the room. A slight pang of nervousness left Naruto's heart, and he let out a sigh.

"_That was close… that stare of his made me want to look away… damn, I need more practice."_

Naruto was surprised as there was a sudden knock on the door, and three people suddenly came in.

The first to come in was the girl he admired back then, the pink-haired lady known as Haruno Sakura. She had not changed much after the time he had returned and left, except that she was just a bit taller and her hair was just a little longer than before. She was followed by Shizune, and then a few seconds later, the 5th Hokage, Tsunade.

"_Hmph, it's Tsunade-baba… all I need to do is put on that 'amnesia' act again and it'll be alright…"_

Tsunade looks at Sakura. "So, this will be a test for you. I want to see the result and power of your healing techniques, which I'm sure are top-notch."

Naruto's eye twitched. _"T-test! Do they mean to say they used me as some sort practical test? I can't believe they treat their patients this way."_

Naruto just looks on as they move his body so that he was turned away from them, then they took off his hospital shirt.

"Very nice, Sakura! After just one day, you were able to heal this guy's wounds to perfection! My, my! I can't even see the marks anymore!" Tsunade praised.

Naruto's eye twitched again. _"That's because I have a faster regeneration rate than any of you! I healed myself, for crying out loud, she didn't do anything!"_

Naruto suddenly feels a slight tingling in his back. _"Oh, I see… they're trying to see if they can fix my amnesia by sending different electrical impulses to my brain… hehe, Kakashi must have told Tsunade-baba about my amnesia."_

"Koujiro did a good job here… he would have made an excellent medical ninja. There are no signs of damage in the area of the brain which contains one's memories, but there seems to be a jumbling of electrical impulses in that area, which does not allowhim to recall anything from his memory. No signals move back and forth from the primary memory area, and the only thing that will heal this… is time. It'll take time for the impulses to connect to the appropriate receptors, but by then, Orochimaru would have attacked," Tsunade explains softly.

Naruto smiles. _"Hehe, Koujiro did an excellent job in hiding the truth from them. Of course I had to sacrifice the knowledge of almost all my jutsus, but forgetting some jutsus won't kill me. Besides, once the time comes, I can get Koujiro to reconnect to those receptors, so it'll be no problem at all."_

Naruto faces them. "Umm, are you done now? I think I need a little more sleep. I'm so tired."

Tsunade looks at him, and nods. "Yes, you're right, Sorry for disturbing you."

Sakura looks at him and smiles. "Hmm, do you remember your name?"

Naruto acts as if struggling, and sadly shakes his head.

"We can just look it up in our records. It'll be no problem," Shizune explains.

"I already have. Black hair, yellow eyes, fair skin. This guy was once a Hunter-nin, but suddenly disappeared while on a mission. It was assumed that he was killed, because his face mask was found with spatters of blood on it, and when a Hunter-nin removes his or her mask, it usually meant that the mission had ended or he or she was dying. Anyway, his name is Kari Shuu."

"Ah, so it's Shuu-kun," Sakura says while eyeing him thoughtfully.

"Kari… Shuu." Naruto says his name slowly, and looks at them with a blank look in his eyes.

"Well, at least you know your own name. You'll be fine, you just need a little more time," Shizune states.

Naruto nods, and watches them leave before lying down on the bed again.

"_Hmm, this is working out better than I thought. Meimi's information on the missing nin Kari Shuu was correct, down to the last detail. I'm impressed. Well, time for me to sleep once again."_

Naruto closes his eyes, but hears Kyuubi's small voice before drifting into sleep.

"_Decide…"_

_-_

_Author's Note_: Ah yes, the old amnesia thing. Yes, I know it's an old excuse, but that was the best I could think of right now. Anyway, I was able to enter them into Konoha, right, and that's the important thing! Hope you people had fun reading it! Review please!


	14. Koujiro

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Ah, I was finally able to release this new chapter! I've had a rough two weeks because my mind just blanked out with regard to this story... sorry, if guys thought I was dead. But here I am again, ready to give you another chapter! Enjoy!

Normal - conversations/narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics and Bold - jutsus_**

Here's the new chapter! It's short, but that's because I'm also working on the next one as well!

-

Asuka looks around the white medical room, and, seeing nothing of any importance glances outside the window right next her. A slight rustling of the leaves surprises her for a bit, but she decides to ignore it anyway.

"_Hmmm… it seems that the Leaf is still taking precautions... they even have ANBU spying on me now…"_

She was already awake a few hourse before, but decided not to go to sleep again. She knew that Koujiro had to incapacitate her just to make sure that they were brought inside the Hidden Leaf Village, but his hit had also left her body physically weakened, and she believed that she would still need a few more days to a week before she could be back in fighting form.

"_Tch… he didn't need to hit me so hard, although I'd have to say he did a good job in making his hit look like a hit on my nervous system. Even that large breasted bitch kage wasn't able to see through his attack… but to have to lose my physical prowess…"_

She suddenly notices a green bug on the inside of her window. The bug was well hidden because of the trees which were right across from her window, and the color of the bug matched the color of the tree's leaves so well.

"_A bug? How did that get in here? Might as well kill it, it might spread some sort of disease…"_

Asuka takes one of the magazines nearby, rolls it up, and prepares to strike the bug, but is interrupted by a knock from outside the window.

A black-robed ANBU wearing a cat mask was staring right at her from outside the window, and seemed to motioning her to open it.

"_Hmmm, this might be a bit risky, but I guess one of those ANBU in here won't be too bad… besides, it'll make them trust me more if I follow what they want me to do."_

She quickly opens the window, and sees the bug immediately scurry off towards the ANBU.

"Um, ok… why don't you come in?"

The ANBU stares at her blankly under the mask, and makes no intention to come inside the hospital room.

"No, it's ok."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Asuka stares curiously at the ANBU right in front of her. The guy seemed to be extremely calm and collected, and he this slight hint of mysteriousness in his voice which made her like him a little.

"So… you're a ninja?" Asuka asks innocently.

"Yes."

"Do all ninjas have cool masks like yours?"

"No, only the ones who are part of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, otherwise known as the ANBU, wear masks as a part of their daily life."

"I see," Asuka states with interest.

There was a few seconds of silence between the two, and then the ANBU suddenly speaks up.

"Do you really remember nothing?"

"Nothing… nothing at all."

"I see." The ANBU sounded sorrowful, but the mask covered the man's emotions perfectly.

There was another few seconds of silence and uneasiness, which is then broken once again by the ANBU.

"You are skilled. You spotted that bug just after it had set itself on the glass of the window. Maybe… your body still remembers what it was like when you were a part of the ANBU?"

"_Ahh, so they checked the records immediately, as Koujiro predicted they would. Having to use my real name would be a bit too risky, and besides, I've always liked the name Megumi."_

"Ahh… sorry, I really don't remember anything. Please forgive me. Am I… supposed to know you?"

The ANBU looks a little stunned, but quickly recovers. He removes his mask and reveals a pale face with small black sunglasses, making the man look even more mysterious than ever.

"You really don't recognize me, Megumi?" The ANBU's voice was calm, but there was a slight hint of hurt in it.

"I… I'm sorry. I really don't recognize you…" Asuka tried to make her voice sound as pained as possible, and sees that her acting has an effect on the ANBU as he tries to stifle the hurt from his face.

"I see." The ANBU's voice was tight and forced, and he puts his mask back on. "I'll leave you now. You just need more rest."

Asuka watches as the ANBU leaves through the window, and waits until she no longer senses his presence before smiling.

"_Hmm, this is interesting… it looks like that ANBU had a previous relationship with Megumi… This is an interesting development…"_

Asuka silently chuckles. "This is good… I can use him…"

-

"We must attack the Hidden Sound Village NOW!" roars Temari as she stands up and slams her hand on the table.

The whole Konoha council looks at the Sand jounin silently.

A council member suddenly speaks out. "We all know how you feel about your brother being taken by Orochimaru, but right now, attacking the Hidden Sound blindly will not result to anything."

The female council member continues. "The Hidden Sound is probably heavily defended right now, and if we send out a large force of ninjas for an offensive, the that would leave our village open to attack by the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud, who, I'm quite sure, already know that the Hidden Sand has weakened, thus leaving us alone for the time being."

"Damn it… DAMN IT!" screams Temari, which results to an arched eyebrow from the whole council.

"Gaara… Gaara is with them… my brother…" Temari's words were choked by her sobbing, and sits down and starts to cry.

Tsunade walks over the weeping Temari and gently places her hand on Temari's shoulders. "It's going to be alright, Temari. We'll find a way to get your brother back. But right now, we need to start thinking of increasing the defense of both the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Sand. This war has taken a toll on the number of ninjas in all the villages, and attacking blindly right now is just like sending out ninjas to their graves."

A knock interrupts the meeting, and Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin suddenly enters.

Tsunade looked worried and puzzled at the same time. "Jiraiya? You're back already!"

The perverted ninja looked tired and fatigued, something that she had not seen in Jiraiya for quite some time. His clothes were dirty and torn, and there were a few blood stains on some parts of his clothes.

"Jiraiya, what happened?" asks a council member quietly.

"Akatsuki… Akatsuki has started moving once again. I don't know the reason right now, due to the loss of my informant, but this is a very bad sign. A VERY bad sign. They haven't become this active for quite some time now, and that means they must be planning something big. REALLY big."

"I see…" Tsunade looked extremely worried and serious, and the room was silent for a few seconds, except for a few occasional sobs from Temari.

"Then… have they found the other two who possess demons?" the female council member asks after quite a while.

"Yes, they've found all the demon containers. Although there is no real guarantee that there are only four in the whole world, the two the Akatsuki hasare proven to have a youma and the third is a potential container," Jiraiya states wearily.

"Uzumaki Naruto possesses the Kyuubi, Sabaku no Gaara has the Shukaku, and Uruha Asuka has the Yurei... who is the fourth one then?" Tsunade asks.

"That… I don't know yet. The fourth one is only a potential container, meaning he could or could not have a demon inside of him. Plus, my informant wasn't exactly clear about the fourth possessor the last time we talked…"

There was another moment of silence in the room, which was only broken by a cough from Jiraiya.

"Ahem… anyway, I hear we have an S-rank missing nin in our village right now. And what's with the news about our spies coming from Sound? Since when did we send spies to that Hidden Village?"

"Our so-called 'spies' currently have amnesia, however, and both of them went missing in a mission a long time ago. It IS possible that they were found by Orochimaru and captured for his own purposes. And thus they could have learned some important information in their stay there.

And then, we have the presence of that S-rank missing nin in our prison. I'm sure you know him, Jiraiya. That man was also considered a candidate by Sandaime and Yondaime to become a Hokage even when he was young, so he's currently a very dangerous person right now. We have him under intense guard at our maximum security prison," Tsunade says gravely.

"No… it can't be… that man… Arashi Koujiro?"

Everyone nods.

"I see… that really is a surprise. When was he captured?"

One of the council members replies immediately. "He was captured as he was hunting down the two 'spies' we're currently holding right now. It seems that he's allied himself with the Hidden Village of Sound. For revenge, perhaps?"

"I see… I think I'll have a chat with him…"

Jiraiya turns around and starts toward the door, but is stopped by Tsunade's hand on his shoulder.

"Jiraiya, I don't know what Koujiro is planning, but be careful around him. He's probably at our level by now, and it's just a surprise why he hasn't escaped from prison yet."

Jiraiya grins and whispers in Tsunade's ear. "Hehe, since when have you started worrying about me, Tsunade-hime? Maybe you're finally seeing me in a whole different light?" he teases.

Tsunade's eyes narrow, and a vein pops out from her head. "Shut up, if you don't want to die, you old pervert."

-

Koujiro stretches his arms a few minutes after waking up from deep slumber. It had beena weeksince Kakashi had visited him, and he was starting to get bored.

"_Darn… nothing to do right here… I can't read, I can't write here, I can't draw, none of those special guards even knows how to play go or shougi… Damn, this is boring…"_

A few footsteps toward his cell suddenly perks him up and he sits on the bed expectantly.

"_Hmmm, by the sound of the footsteps, I can tell that there probably two or three of them coming here…maybe Naruto and Asuka were somehow able to slip past the guards? Aghh! It doesn't matter! All that matters is that I get to do something!"_

Koujiro waits expectantly as the doors of his cell are slowly opened, and raises an eyebrow as he sees the newcomers enter his cell.

"_Hmmm, a lean, brown-haired shinobi, probably jounin from that vest, with a uninterested look in his eyes… he looks like Shikaku-san from the the Nara clan… and a blonde kunoichi from Sand… oooohh, that thing on her back looks dangerous… looks like that tomboy Meimi for some reason…"_

A voice from outside his cell suddenly surprise him a great deal, but nothing showed on his face as he looked at the two newcomers in his cell.

"So… ah, what can I do for you?" Koujiro asks innocently.

"Agh, this is so troublesome, Temari… why do WE need to be here?" the jounin asks the blonde called Temari.

"Because, Shikamaru, this guy is from the Hidden Village of Sound, and so we can squeeze out information from him with regards to that village," Temari answers viciously.

"Errr, need I remind you that this guy," Shikamaru points straight at Koujiro, "beat BOTH Gai and Rock Lee… so, maybe squeezing out information won't be as easy as it looks…" Shikamaru states worriedly.

"I don't care, you lazy ass, I'll do whatever it takes to get my brother back!" Temari screams.

Koujiro simply watches as the two argue right in front of him. "_Wow, this is nice… I even get to watch couples argue... LIVE! Now this is entertainment!"_

"What are you looking at?" Temari suddenly screams at Koujiro, whose heart leapt from surprise.

"Ahh, um, the two of you? Fighting?" Koujiro answers innocently.

The cell door opens again and Koujiro's eyes widen a little. It was Jiraiya.

"You're late, Jiraiya-sama," Shikamaru states in a monotone.

"Yeah," Temari seconds.

"Sorry, I was just promoting the sixth volume of my Come Come Paradise series, 'Come Come Influence'! You should read it too, Shikamaru!" an excited Jiraiya responds.

"Uhhh, I think I'll pass."

"Oh well, you're loss Shikamaru… anyway…" Jiraiya clears his throat and walks toward Koujiro.

"Nice to see you again, Koujiro. How long has it been?"

"Hello Jiraiya-sama, it's nice to see you too. You haven't changed at all since I left," Koujiro replies happily.

"Heh, that's where you're wrong, blonde boy. Now that I'm fifty plus, I'm not just a pervert, I'm a super pervert! Wahahahaha!" Jiraiya exclaims.

"Anyway," Temari interjects angrily, "we're not here to discuss the past. We're here for information… and if you don't give us that information, we can't guarantee you your life."

"No need to sound so serious, little lady," Koujiro responds cheerily, but his happy expression only lasts for a second. His eyes then narrow and a serious expression covers his face. "But do you really think you can actually do anything to me?"

"Stop this, Koujiro," Jiraiya says in a serious tone. "We're not here to fight."

Jiraiya then faces Shikamaru and Temari, and motions them to go out of the room for a while.

"Heh, I knew that this was a troublesome situation to be in… Jiraiya-sama, please take care of this. Temari, lets go…"

"No! I want to torture him till he tells us some information about the Hidden Sound! I want…"

Temari suddenly stops. Her eyes widen, she starts shaking,and then she suddenly falls down on her knees, covering her ears in the process. Shikamaru bends over and tries comforting her.

"Temari, Temari, what happened? Answer me, Temari!"

"No… Stop it!" she screams.

Jiraiya's eyes widen. "Koujiro, stop it!"

Koujiro closes his eyes and sighs. "Alright."

Jiraiya faces Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, take Temari away. I'll handle this."

Shikamaru nods and carries the shaken Temari away.

Koujiro watches as Shikamaru, carrying Temari, closes the cell door behind him. He then looks directly at the white-haired Sannin, and smiles.

"So, you're still alive."

Jiraiya nods gravely. "No thanks to you... you never told me you were planning to come here. Anyway, what did you show Temari, Koujiro?"

"I showed her what she wanted to see… her brother, possessed by Orochimaru. I showed her the truth, and what would have happened if the Leaf leads a campaign against the Hidden Sound right now."

"Your tenjutsu, 'Nirvana', eh…? Is that what you used on Naruto as well?"

"It could not be helped… do you think he would have joined the Akatsuki if I had not done that?"

"That was a risky gamble, Koujiro. Having him join the Akatsuki brought him closer to Seishurou."

"However, it also brought him closer to me. And that is what matters. If he stayed in this village, by now the Akatsuki and their gathered army of missing nins would have razed this hidden village to the ground."

Jiraiya sits on a chair and stares at Koujiro. "So… have they found out that you're my contact inside their organization?"

"Maybe, maybe not… although Seishurou seems to be suspicious of me right now…"

" 'That man', Seishurou… he's seems to be too impatient these days. What can he be thinking?"

"I don't know, Jiraiya-sama… he's currently deployed the Akatsuki Nine on certain missions, Naruto included. The Akatsuki's much more active right now because Orochimaru gained Sabaku no Gaara's body, and they can't have Orochimaru destroy all of their plans."

"Damn, this is bad… all we can do right now is to go on the defensive against everyone."

"Jiraiya-sama, Seishurou is currently balancing out the war, and we don't know why. He gathered all the S-ranked missing nins of all the Hidden Villages, and used their different goals to his advantage… He wants all the Hidden Villages to weaken themselves in this war, just to instigate the new operation, 'The Red Dawn'."

"But he already has the three youmas, why not start it right now?"

"The problem is that Uruha Asuka's youma Yurei isn't exactly a youma which can be drawn out… her youma is directly fused to her deadly bloodline, as a way to regulate the curse on her clan, so she can't really be used as a 'main event', only as a 'support' for the true demon of destruction, the Kyuubi… Uzumaki Naruto, on the other hand,has a special 'seal', and not even I know how it really works and how to fully unseal it. Only the 4th knows about that. I don't know if Seishurou knows how, but I need Naruto close to me so I can defend him at least.

Besides, once the Kyuubi is unleashed, it won't have a physical demon form to assume, therefore I'm assuming that the Kyuubi will use Naruto's body, thus creating an uncontrollable and unbeatable weapon, the type of weapon that Seishurou is dreaming of using. He needs the full destructive power of the Kyuubi, although I don't know why the whole Akatsuki can't achieve the same end right now."

"He's strange, that Seishurou… he attempted to create a new village back when the 4th was still alive, but was stopped by the 4th himself… the price was the Kyuubi…" Jiraiya says gravely.

Koujiro suddenly falls silent.

"_That time… that day… the day wherein the darkness fell upon Konoha... I can never forget that day…"_

_-_

_Author's Note: _Nothing much to say here, except sorry for the long wait... I seem to have the drive for writing once again at least.


	15. Koujiro: Prelude to the Dark Day

Note: Sorry if i just died... I dunno, i just suddenly lost interest in writing this... hmm, I hope I can keep this up!

Normal - narration

_Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head_

**_Italics + Bold - jutsus_**

"Koujiro… Koujiro!" a voice screams right into his ear.

Koujiro rolls around, but suddenly realizes that there was nothing to roll onto, making him fall off the bed.

"_Owww… no need to scream right into my ear you know…"_

Koujiro looks at the speaker right in front of him. The man was tall, and had long blonde hair which stuck out of his head in an unruly fashion, but seemed to suit him just fine. He wore a white cape which he draped down the red robe which he was wearing, a sign of dignity and position. And this man wasn't just any person of dignity and power; this man was the 4th Hokage, the most powerful ninja of the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the one known as Arashi Narumaru.

"Koujiro… you overslept again. How many times do I have to tell you: don't oversleep! Kakashi's been waiting for you at the appointed place for two hours now."

Koujiro stares right back at the 4th and smiles. "Hehe, if you'll teach me how to use the Rasengan, I promise that I'll never oversleep ever again. Do we have a deal, otoo-san?"

The 4th looks at him and smiles. "Hehe, Koujiro-kun, at most it'll take you a year to fully master the Rasengan, but I don't want to teach that to you just yet; I think you're too young."

"I am NOT too young! I'm already 12, and I can take on most of the chuunin and some jounin here already! I'm strong enough! I know I can learn and master it within a week!" Koujiro complains.

"Koujiro, there's more to being a ninja that being strong. Let me ask you one thing: why do you want to be strong?"

Koujiro suddenly stops for a while and thinks. A few seconds later, he grins. "Because I want to show off my skills! With these skills, I'm sure that everyone in this village will stop hating me for being an outsider and will start admiring me!"

"Kou-kun, is that how much you still hate all those people for disregarding you and not allowing you to become a ninja? Because hate won't do anything… it will only destroy and corrupt you to a point that you may even become an enemy of this village."

"Well, if they'll continue to hate me, then I might as well become an enemy to the village…" Koujiro sees Narumaru's sharp eyes and drops his head down. "Well, I won't become an enemy as long as you're the Hokage, otoo-san."

"Kou-kun, if you continue to hate and detest this village, then you will never be truly strong. Tell me, have you ever wanted to protect something that you would be willing to risk your life for it?"

Koujiro looks at the 4th in wonder. "Umm, no…"

The 4th suddenly looks at Koujiro with his sharp eyes, causing Koujiro to drop his head. "Do you know why I'm so strong, Kou-kun?" the 4th asks.

"Because you worked hard, you gained experience from the war with Iwa, and you were trained by the great Jiraiya?"

"Well, those are part of it… but the main thing is, I'm strong because I'm the Hokage. And the Hokage's primary job is to protect the village, and everyone in it, including you. I want to create a peaceful and harmonious village, a village that won't need to be at odds with the other Hidden Villages, a village that doesn't create loneliness among the people within it.

I want to protect everything in Konoha: it's will, it's people, it's heart… and as long as I am a shinobi of Konoha, I will every bit of my strength and my sould to protect the village which I love."

Koujiro was struck by those words, and he lifts his face up. "Something… to protect, huh? So that is… true strength…"

The 4th looks lovingly at his adopted son. "Anyway, you'd better get going now, Koujiro. You don't want to keep Kakashi waiting any longer than necessary."

"Thank you, father.." Koujiro then bows and starts preparing for his training session with Kakashi.

Koujiro breathes heavily as he leaps from rooftop to rooftop towards the giant rock where the memories of dead ninjas were written.

"_Sorry, big brother, but I promised Obito that I would visit his grave everyday… looks like I'll be late for a few more minutes…"_

However, upon landing near the site, he notices two figures already standing in front of the memorial stone.

"Big brother! Rin-chan!" he shouts while running towards them.

The two figures suddenly turn around and wave their hands. Koujiro then stops right in front of Kakashi, still panting and apparently out of breath.

"Yo. I thought we were to meet you out at the training grounds two hours ago." Kakashi states.

"Ahh, sorry big brother. I overslept again…"

"That's fine," Rin says with a smile. "By the way, did you come here to visit Obito too?"

Koujiro nods. "Yeah, I visit big brother Obito everyday since he passed away in that mission…"

The whole group suddenly went silent for a few seconds as they remembered Obito.

Kakashi suddenly broke the ice. "Alright, let's go. Rin and I will be going on missions for the next few weeks, so you'll have to practice on your own starting tomorrow. Anyway, I won't be making this an easy day of training for you, so you'd better be ready."

"Heh, no problem!"

Later that night…

"No problem, huh?" Kakashi states jokingly. "You were almost crying with the hardships which you had to go by. Hehe, looks like you'll always be a crybaby, ne, Koujiro-kun?"

Koujiro was lying on the floor, apparently tired and regrettably weak. He could barely lift a finger and he looked dazed.

"I never imagined… that the training would be that hard… two against one… that was so unfair…" Koujiro whines.

"Haha, Koujiro, nothing's ever fair… when you fight, life will almost never be fair, so you had better be prepared for the worst… still, you impressed both of us out there. You were able to get Rin's bell quickly, and I never imagined that I would have to use the Sharingan against you. You've improved a great deal… if you were a ninja and if we were still having that war with the Hidden Stone, you'd probably be a Jounin by now."

"Heh, but it looks like I'm still not much of a match to you, big brother… but I promise you, the next time we meet, I'll be stronger than you… hehehe," Koujiro states while panting.

"We'll see about that, little brother… remember, we're still young, so we still have the potential to grow even stronger… but, I'll be looking forward to the day I get to fight you in a serious battle."

Kakashi turns and looks at Koujiro, but realizes that the boy was already sleeping.

"Koujiro… Koujiro!" a voice screams right into his ear.

Koujiro rolls around, but suddenly realizes that there was nothing to roll under, thus causing him to fall off the bed.

"_Owww… you don't have to scream in my ear…"_

Koujiro stands up almost immediately, scratching his head in the process.

"Uhh… don't tell me… I overslept again?"

The 4th lightly punches him on the head. "No, no… you didn't oversleep this time. I'll be away today, and there's something important I want you to do. Come with me."

Koujiro follows the 4th as they go to another room. Koujiro's eyes widen in surprise as there, in the middle of the room, was a crib, and in that crib was a blonde baby sleeping quietly.

"Ah! A baby! Did you adopt him too?"

The 4th smiles. "Yes, his parents died while they were on a mission, and since his mother was a teammate of mine when I was a Genin and a close friend, I've decided to take him under my wing, just like you."

Koujiro shakes excitedly. "So, so, what's his name going to be? Arashi… Shinta? Arashi… Nataku? Arashi… Sasuke?"

"Oh, about that… I haven't officially adopted him, so the child will have to stick with his original family name, at least until I formally announce him to be my adopted son."

"Hmm, so what's his name?"

The 4th looks at the baby lovingly. "A new leaf in our village… by the name of Uzumaki."

"He doesn't have a first name yet?" Koujiro asks curiously.

"No… why don't we give him one?" 4th says happily.

"Hmm, first names… Tetsuo, Naraku, Nataku, Sasuke…"

"Uh, scratch those two last ones, Koujiro… I don't want to name him Sasuke or Nataku… hmm, how about Narudamaru? Named after me of course," the 4th states cheerily.

"Hmm, how about… Naru… Naru… Naru…to… Naruto? How does that sound?" Koujiro asks excitedly.

"Uzumaki… Naruto, eh?" the 4th mumbles. "Hmm, yeah, it's a good name. Let's stick with that. We'll call this boy, Uzumaki Naruto, at least until I formally state that I'll be adopting this child. Then we can call him Arashi Naruto."

"Heh, I finally have a brother, eh? This so cool! When he's old for to become an academy student, I'll go and teach him all the stuff he needs to learn to get ahead! Plus, I'll teach him all the jutsus you and big brother Kakashi taught me! Then…" Koujiro rambles excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa, Kou-kun… take it easy. No need to go hysterical on him. I'm sure you'll become a great big brother to Naruto, someone who'll always help him and be there for him when he needs help… but for now, it's your duty to take care of Naruto until I return."

"Yeah! No problem!"

The day wore on, and Koujiro was at a loss of things to do. Lightning flashed outside, and heavy rain destroyed all chances of Koujiro being able to at least open of the windows. Aside from that, he had to cater to every whim the baby had: he had to feed Naruto, play with him constantly, rock him to sleep, change his diaper… he had basically become a slave to the kid, and Koujiro was starting to run out of patience.

"_Argh! I can't stand it anymore! I know that it's my solemn duty to take care of this kid, by why the heck does he have to be such a loud screamer and a cryer! Why can't he be like those babies that just cry a little bit, get pleased extremely easily, and then just go to sleep?"_

Crying suddenly erupted from the room above.

"_Damn… here I go again…"_

Koujiro climbed the stairs as slowly as possible, making sure he felt every step and taking as much time as he could.

"_Maybe… maybe if I walk really slow, Naruto would run out of steam and stop crying… Argh! It's just so annoying!"_

However, just as Koujiro was about to take the last step on the stairs, he suddenly heard the baby stop crying.

"_Oh, what a relief! That kid FINALLY stopped crying! Now I'll just check to see if the baby's sleeping again, and if he is, then I get another hour off!"_

Koujiro quietly walks towards Naruto's room and opens the door wide. His eyes widen, however, as he sees the empty crib and the wind blowing through the window, flooding the room with water due to the heavy rain.

"Damn it! Naruto!" Koujiro exclaims.

He immediately runs towards the window, sticking his head out into the pouring rain, looking to and fro. He suddenly spots something suspicious on the rooftop opposite the house.

"A ripple… is it genjutsu? Or a chameleon-type ninjutsu? Damn it, who cares, I'll go after it anyways."

Koujiro leaps out the window and goes after the almost invisible ripples which flicker through the air.

"Hmm, now I understand… it's like the chameleon-type jutsu of the Stone nins, except this one didn't even bother to hide the chakra flow throught his clothes… he must be pretty confident in his abilities…"

Koujiro quietly performs a few hand seals. "**_Chameleon Jutsu!"_**

Koujiro completely blends himself with his surroundings, careful not to alert the kidnapper of his presence. He then follows closely behind the hidden ninja, who heads towards the Hokage Monument.

"It's dark in here… why the heck did he come here?"

Koujiro shakes off the water from his clothes, still following the unknown ninja closely. The ninja had taken off his chameleon jutsu, and was quickly moving through the dim hallways and passageways inside the monument.

"_I can't lose him here… tch, this is all my fault for not paying any attention to Naruto… Yondaime will kill me if I don't get Naruto back… some big brother I am…"_

Koujiro quietly follows the man through the hidden passageways and corridors which he never knew existed inside the monument, waiting for the opportune time to strike.

Suddenly, the man stopped in front of a huge stone wall. Koujiro immediately jumped towards the ceiling and clung himself using chakra.

"_What is he doing here in the first place? Why did he bring Naruto here?"_

The man quickly does a set of hand seals which Koujiro immediately memorizes. "Ninpou: Gates of the Underworld!" the man says softly.

The rock wall suddenly wavered, followed by a ripple which created waves althroughout the wall. The waves reveals a small, dark path, and the man walks through, with Koujiro following closely behind.

"_Amazing! Was that genjutsu? Or ninjutsu? Why haven't I ever seen this hallway before?"_

They enter a small, circular room full of torches along the walls. The room was lined with rows of bookshelves, and there were a lot of books just sprawled on the floor. Koujiro suddenly notices a tall, silver-haired man sitting and a reading a book with his legs crossed on the table before him. The kidnapper hurries toward the man and lays Naruto on the table.

"Seishurou-sama, do you really think it wise... to do this?"

The silver-haired man reads on, apparently ignoring the unknown ninja.

"This is too much of a risk to take. If the Hokage finds out…"

Seishurou calmly lifts his head. "And if he finds out, then what? He won't be able to stop me… besides, all I'm doing is continuing his work, which he most graciously abandoned because he said it was too dangerous… the 4th is truly a fool, if he had continued this project, then all ninja villages would bow down before the Leaf…"

"But you are one of the 4th's most trusted advisors and friends… why are you doing this?"

"Riou, Riou… you truly do not understand me, do you. I lost faith in my friend the moment he veered away from this project. Besides, I'm sick and tired of seeing his face and talking about stuff like protect the village with my will and crap like that… what he should have done is solidify the Leaf's position among the Hidden Villages by attacking them, and if he had gone with this plan then it would have assured our victory. However, it seems that fate has given me this opportunity to fulfill his past dream, the dream of the Akatsuki…"

"Are you saying that you're jealous of the 4th, Seishurou-sama?"

Seishurou's eyes suddenly narrow, and a murderous glare escapes his eyes. "Hmph, you could say that. That bastard isn't fit to run this village… he'll only make the Hidden Leaf weak because of his concepts about 'peace' and 'unity'. I would have made a far better Hokage."

Seishurou stands up and takes a look at Naruto, who was currently sleeping. He then smiles.

"The contract is now complete then…"

"Seishurou-sama, you will not kill him, will you? Is this not all part of the Kyuubi project?"

"Hehe… the 4th's secret organization, Akatsuki, was supposed to be the Red Dawn which creates hope against the upcoming disaster known as the Kyuubi. We of the Akatsuki were supposed to prepare the new death jutsus which would enable us to seal any youma into death itself, thus destroying its power to reform its soul into this world. However, I have created a jutsu that will awaken ayouma even before it is supposed to come out into this world, as long as the sacrifice is complete."

Seishurou takes his kunai and lays it right next to Naruto. He then performs a long sequence of hand seals. "**_Kuchiyose Youma Resurrection_**!"

The whole room suddenly shakes, and writings suddenly appear on the walls and on the floor.

"Riou! Do you understand why I picked this area for the initial summoning?"

"Why?"

"Because… this area was once a sacrificial altar to appease the youmas… however, when the 1st built the Hidden Leaf Village, he created a seal which barred the entry of a youma's body in this site… however, it would not prevent the youma's spirit from the being released."

Riou gulped. "Sacrificial altar?"

"Yes, a sacrificial altar. But don't worry, I won't kill the kid… I'll be killing you."

Riou's eyes widen as a white blur suddenly speeds towards him and immediately cuts right through his throat, muffling the scream which should have come out from his mouth.

"Good night, Uzumaki Riou… too bad you won't be able to see the Cleansing of the Hidden Villages, and me becoming the most powerful kage in all the five countries… but I guess trash like you who willingly gave his own son in return for riches and prestige shouldn't even be a part of those saved once the demon of destruction, Kyuubi, gets released."

Riou's lifeless body falls down on the ground and the pool of blood gushing from his body suddenly seeps into the tiled floor.

Seishurou smiles. "It begins… this child has been given the destiny to become the "Contract"… and the Uzumaki blood will become the pact to release the most powerful youma of all… I can see it now… destruction in every part of the land, and I, standing above all those kages, creating a new world that fits my image…"

Seishurou then moves toward Naruto, picks him up and lays him on the body of Riou. "Let's begin then, shall we?"

He then dips his finger into a small pool of blood and starts writing symbols on and around Naruto. He then performs another long chain of hand seals, causing the symbols and the floor itself to light up. Suddenly, a spirit in the shape of a fox embodies itself above Naruto, and Koujiro's hair all stands up on end.

"Kyuubi… I have the contract, and thus I can now release you even before the prophecied time of your arrival… Wreak your death and destruction onto this pathetic world!"

Seishurou then performs another long chain of hand seals, touching the tip of kunai on the table after the last one. Kyuubi's spririt and chakra mingle with the kunai, and Seishurou calmly takes the kunai and heads toward Naruto.

"The Contract has been made, the summon can now never be undone…" Seishurou says while slashing the right cheek of the baby Naruto in a horizontal manner, causing the Kyuubi's spirit and chakra to seep inside Naruto and into the body underneath him.

"Blood has been given, now flesh become one…" Seishurou slashes the left cheek of Naruto horizontally.

"_Shit! I need to stop him!" _Koujiro decides, but he couldn't move because of the pure terror that he felt from the size and power of the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Become the host of destruction…" Seishurou creates another slash wound right under the one on Naruto's right cheek.

Koujiro finally gets over his fear, and rushes straight at Seishurou.

"Summoned to destroy every nation…" Seishurou creates another slash wound right under the left one.

"Stop it!" Koujiro screams out loud.

"Oh? Another cockroach? Konoha seems to be infested with little bugs which can't seem to keep their noses out of others' business."

Seishurou faces Koujiro, and laughs out loud.

"Haha, what do we have here? The 4th's little boy, the outcast of Konoha? Do you think that this village will recognize you if you can somehow stop me? Ha ha ha ha! Stop this foolishness! The village will never change the way it looks at you! It will always see you as a traitor and as an enemy! I don't even understand why you try to help this pathetic village out in the first place… you're very existence is an ill omen to them!"

Koujiro stops and stands upright, seemingly in a daze.

"_He's right… why AM I trying to help this village? I've tried so hard to belong, and yet no one except father, the old geezer who was former Hokage, the pervert hermit, and big brother Kakashi and Obito and Rin have fully accepted me… this village still looks at me as if I were someone to be killed, to be loathed… many of them just try to put on a good and happy face just because they know I'm the son of the 4th, but I know that deep down inside, they've never really cared for me at all…"_

"Hmph, little boy, in the end, you're just an outcast and an enemy to this village, no matter which you way you look at these facts. Now, be a good boy and sit in the corner over there, while I finish my work…"

Koujiro silently stands in deep contemplation, his thoughts racing to and fro. Memories of all those who had once scorned and hated him come to mind, and he curls his hands into fists with anger.

"That's right, boy, hate them… hmm, I must say that seeing how you were capable of following Riou here, you must abound with potential… well then, I'll make sure that you stay by my side as we let the youma, Kyuubi, destroy everything!"

Koujiro suddenly remembers the Fourth's words:

'_I want to protect everything in Konoha: it's will, it's people, it's heart… and as long as I am a shinobi of Konoha, I will every bit of my strength and my sould to protect the village which I love_.'

Koujiro smiles, and starts performing seals. _"Thank you… father. I'm so sorry for doubting you and Konoha… and since I'm just an outcast… I will… I will… make sure that this man will never harm you or this village… this is the most I can do for you, father… I guess this is goodbye…"_

Koujiro then finishes the chain of hand seals.

"This jutsu… will end everything!" he screams.

"Hmph, so you would rather die, huh, kid? You do know that you can't defeat me, even if you do use ninjutsu," Seishurou sneers.

"Heh, this isn't ninjutsu, this is… TENJUTSU! **_Ninpou Nirvana!_**"

Author's note: Well, that's it! I really hope this chapter wasas enjoyable as my previous ones! Review please!


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